In Abyei, a disputed oil-rich region between Sudan and South Sudan, political limbo has long fuelled local conflicts and left the area neglected by international aid groups. But the situation for residents has become even tougher over the past three years, as political elites stir new conflicts and as the war in Sudan causes prices to rise and refugees and returnees to seek safety there.
“With the people coming from Sudan, there is a shortage of a lot of things like healthcare and accessing water within Abyei,” said Makuac Deng, a local journalist. “Even in the households, one family is now accommodating two families.”
Deng said he is himself a displaced person, having escaped militia attacks in a southern part of Abyei in 2022. He said most displaced people in the region are being supported by relatives and lack employment opportunities to live independently.
Abyei was supposed to hold a referendum alongside South Sudan’s 2011 independence vote, allowing its residents to decide whether they wanted to join the South.
Yet despite South Sudan’s official independence, the Abyei referendum never took place because of disputes over who gets to vote, and because of the competing interests of Sudan and South Sudan, which also benefit from the status quo.
The subsequent stalemate has left Abyei’s main inhabitants, the Ngok Dinka, feeling forgotten. Identifying largely as South Sudanese, many sided with southern rebels during their decades-long independence struggle against Sudan’s northern government.
On a recent visit to Abyei, local residents told The New Humanitarian that uncertainty around territorial boundaries has hindered the region’s ability to attract sufficient humanitarian assistance, and has left it vulnerable to incursions and attacks.
In recent years, that has included deadly raids on southern parts of Abyei by Twic Dinka militias from South Sudan’s adjoining Warrap state. Twic politicians are accused of stoking the conflict by claiming that parts of Abyei belong to their territory.
There have also been longer-standing clashes between the Ngok Dinka and Misseriya pastoralists, who migrate seasonally through Abyei and have historically acted as proxies for the Sudanese government; though there has been a reduction in tensions in recent years.
“The status of Abyei hasn’t been resolved, and that means we don’t have a guarantee of sovereignty,” said Nyangkuc Ngor, a teacher and local politician. “We are usually coming into conflicts with neighbouring communities because of that.”
“The politicians used the youth”
The human impact of these conflicts was clear when The New Humanitarian travelled to Abyei a few weeks ago on a plane chartered by the Abyei administration from Juba, South Sudan’s capital.
Driving from southern parts of Abyei, where one of the territory’s main airstrips is located, burnt houses and abandoned villages and fields marked the areas where Twic Dinka militias had staged attacks.
The roots of the conflict stretch back to Twic Dinka claims in 2017 that parts of southern Abyei – notably Agok town and the bustling Annet market area – are located within Twic county.
Many feel these territorial claims mask a desire by Twic Dinka elites to control an area viewed as a local economic hub and tax base. Given its uncertain status, Abyei is deemed an easy target for a neighbouring region that is also marginalised.
Twic Dinka militia raids and reprisals from Ngok Dinka groups began in 2022, displacing tens of thousands of Ngok Dinka from southern Abyei. South Sudanese soldiers were deployed to establish a buffer zone, but residents say tensions persist.
With few international aid groups available to help, the humanitarian response has largely relied on host families who have been sharing out their scarce resources and limited accommodation for several years.
Mijak Makul Pachuol, a 29-year-old resident of Abyei town – where most of the displaced people sought refuge – said his family is accommodating 23 relatives who escaped attacks on Annet.
“The food is not enough. It is also difficult to get treatment when people fall sick, and life is just tough,” Pachuol said. “In Annet, my relatives were farming, but now they have to rely on us for their livelihood.”
Deng, the displaced journalist, said Annet was a major market in Abyei and a symbol of unity because of its diverse community of traders. He said its destruction by Twic Dinka militias has had a major impact on the economy of the wider region.
“The market was very big, and it used to offer job opportunities for the youth and was a source of revenue for everyone – not only the government,” Deng said.
Abyei residents and researchers told The New Humanitarian that the conflict has been particularly painful due to the strong historic ties between the Ngok Dinka and Twic Dinka.
South Sudanese scholar Luka Biong, who is from Abyei, said their livelihood systems are interconnected, intermarriage is highly common, and that Abyei residents often took refuge with the Twic Dinka during struggles for independence.
However, Biong said Twic county has not been as economically successful in recent times as Abyei, which has fertile land as well as oil. He said Twic political elites sought to tackle that “disparity” by mobilising downtrodden youth.
“The politicians used the youth to embark on criminal activities and caused the rift between Ngok and Twic,” Biong said. “What happened is exactly what is happening all over South Sudan,” he added, referring to the way so-called communal conflicts there are often stirred by political and military elites.
The impact of Sudan’s war
While interactions between the Ngok Dinka and Twic Dinka have worsened in recent years, Abyei residents said relations with Misseriya communities, who migrate through northern parts of Abyei territory, have improved.
Misseriya were previously recruited into government militias by Khartoum, and were used to remove Ngok Dinka inhabitants from oil areas that Sudanese authorities still maintain control over.
The Ngok Dinka, considering themselves Abyei’s only permanent residents, have long worried that if the Misseriya participate in a referendum they would register non-migratory Misseriya to influence the outcome of the vote.
Although these tensions remain unresolved, several Abyei residents said the ongoing war in Sudan between the country's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023, has created an opportunity for more positive inter-communal engagement.
“When Khartoum coughs, or when they sneeze, we actually pay the price in Abyei here.”
With supply routes from northern Sudan disrupted, the Misseriya, who once relied on goods from the north, now depend on food coming from Juba in the south passing through Abyei – a newfound reliance that has fostered more peaceful coexistence.
“There is a resemblance of relative peace,” said Biong, the scholar. “People started being realistic, and then they started talking as a community, without a condition that this is the land of the people of Abyei or the Misseriya.”
However, the war in Sudan has had a negative impact on Abyei in other ways. The arrival of displaced people has strained local infrastructure, and Abyei’s increased reliance on commodities from far away Juba has led to rising prices at markets.
Cheap goods looted by the RSF and allied militias, ranging from electronics to cars, have appeared in local markets. Some residents said their cattle have also been raided by militias fighting in Sudan’s war, though they did not specify which groups.
“Everything that happened there, it affects us,” said Chol Deng Alak, the former chief administrator of Abyei. “When Khartoum coughs, or when they sneeze, we actually pay the price in Abyei here.”
Ayuak Rokdit Deng, of the Abyei Community Action for Development, a local NGO, told The New Humanitarian that his organisation receives requests and complaints every day from displaced people coming from Sudan in desperate need of food and shelter.
“Every time you find people coming in asking for assistance, what do we do? We take data and they have to wait because we don’t have resources,” Deng said.
Resolving Abyei’s status
Chol Changath Chol, Abyei’s minister of peacebuilding, attributed the lack of humanitarian support to the region’s disputed status and the political challenges aid groups face in operating there.
“Organisations are hesitant,” Chol said. “They don’t understand if this is part of Sudan, or part of South Sudan, and this is why sometimes the donors don't pay the money to help the people.”
Chol said the prolonged delay in resolving Abyei’s status leaves the territory vulnerable to border disputes and conflicts, especially given that its land is so fertile and has resources like oil.
“We are like a food basket here for every community surrounding us, but the problem is that we don’t have protection,” Chol said. “Some of the neighbours want what we have in this land.”
Biong, the scholar, echoed Chol’s concerns, arguing that the delay is not only fuelling border conflicts, like those with the Twic Dinka, but also hindering broader development in the region.
“When you are in a situation of uncertainty, it is not healthy for one to plan, it is not healthy for even long-term development, and, yes, it is not even healthy for humanitarian activities,” he said.
Still, Biong stressed that Abyei and its neighbours should not count on Sudan and South Sudan to resolve local disputes. He said the responsibility for fostering peace should instead lie with the communities themselves.
“It is not about whether the government of South Sudan will help, or the government of Sudan will help,” he said. “It is about [they] themselves creating a convenient environment for their survival and co-existence with neighbouring communities.”
Edited by Philip Kleinfeld.
