News Article by RTTN posted on August 09, 2008 at 04:55:41: EST (-5 GMT)
|
North, South Sudan Agree On Administration Of Disputed Abyei Region (RTTNews) - The government of North Sudan and that of semi-autonomous South Sudan have reached a deal over the administration of the disputed region of Abeyi, ending the ongoing conflict over the ownership of the oil rich region. As per the deal, Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Friday appointed a southerner as the chief administrator and a member of a local Arab clan as his deputy for the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei, a move welcomed by both sides. Arop Moyak, a southerner from Sudan's People Liberation Movement, will now be chief administrator of Abyei, with Rahama Abdel Rahman al-Nour of the northern National Congress Party functioning as his deputy. They will now have two weeks to name a seven-member administrative council and a 20-member additional area council, which will govern the region until the residents of Abyei decides in a 2011 referendum whether to retain its special administrative status in the north, or join the semi-autonomous south The dispute over the Abeyi region had threatened undermine a 2005 peace deal that ended 21 years of civil war that killed after more than 1.5 million people, after Sudan's Arab north and Christian and animist south claimed ownership of the oil rich region.
|