No health facilities in rebel-controlled Abyei county

An NGO survey of rebel-controlled Abyei county has found that there are no health services available to a population of about 32,000 people, forcing them to walk for between two and three days to access medical care. About 60 percent of people relied on traditional healers and "spear masters" who performed witchcraft, the Irish charity GOAL reported, with about 20 percent opting for formal health care in Abyei town, where there is a hospital, or neighbouring Twic county, which has primary health clinics. A lack of money and the distance involved determined where people went, GOAL reported, adding that those who were unable to walk had to be carried on stretchers. Community leaders had set up "emergency health posts" in rebel-held Abyei three years ago, but there were no medicines and no salaries available which meant they were unsustainable, GOAL programme officer Martina Collins, told IRIN. Malaria, diarrhoeal diseases, respiratory infections, malnutrition and measles were the main causes of mortality in the area. Two thirds of people had no blankets and slept around fires, exposing themselves to mosquitos and malaria as the fires died down and the smoke - which acts as a repellant - thinned out, GOAL reported. Despite a food surplus in the region, almost one quarter of the children surveyed appeared to be malnourished. This was due to a poor diet of sorghum, lacking protein content, which young children were being fed from when they stopped breast feeding, said Collins. There was also no immunisation available for children apart from polio. The only children who had been immunised - eight out of 116 surveyed - were returnees from northern Sudan. Abyei has suffered several decades of conflict between the Ngok Dinka in the south and the Misseriya Arabs to the north. Although it has been peaceful since late 2002, thousands of Dinka remain displaced. Five camps in government-controlled northern Abyei house an estimated 70,000 people, with a further 50,000 scattered throughout the province of Bahr el Ghazal. The Abyei Community Action for Development (ACAD), a local NGO, estimates that 1,300 households have returned to southern Abyei so far this year, while another 750 people are expected within the next week. The returnees, mostly from Khartoum, were visibly better off than local people who had not been displaced, Reuben Haylett, a medical coordinator with GOAL, told IRIN. Many others who had returned, had chosen not to stay due to the lack of services, and moved on to neighbouring Twic county or to the IDP camps in northern Abyei, Deng Mading, director of ACAD, told IRIN. A regional conference held in Agok, Abyei county, in early June expressed "outrage at the subhuman conditions" in which the IDPs were living. The over 700 conference participants - no government representation was present - called on the international community to guarantee "free movement and adequate protection and security" for the repatriation of the IDPs. They also asserted that they were "part and parcel" of southern Sudan and identified the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) as their "legitimate representative" in any negotiations with the government. The status of Abyei is currently one of the most contentious issues in negotiations for a national peace agreement in Sudan. The SPLM/A insists on the right to hold a referendum in Abyei on whether to join southern Sudan. In theory, this would precede the main southern referendum, on secession, to be held six and a half years after a peace agreement is signed. The government has so far insisted that Abyei is a local issue and does not require negotiation with the SPLM/A.