The dispute over the Abyei region is the most volatile
aspect of Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA) and risks unravelling that
increasingly shaky deal. The CPA granted the
disputed territory, which has a significant percentage
of Sudan’s oil reserves, a special administrative status
under the presidency and a 2011 referendum to decide
whether to join what might then be an independent
South. However, in violation of the CPA, the ruling
National Congress Party (NCP) is refusing the “final
and binding” ruling of the Abyei Boundary
Commission (ABC) report, leaving an administrative
and political vacuum. Negotiations between the NCP
and the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation
Army/Movement (SPLA/SPLM) are stalled, and both
sides are building up their military forces around
Abyei. The SPLM’s 11 October decision to suspend
its participation in the Government of National Unity
in protest of the NCP’s non-implementation of the
CPA, marks the most dangerous political escalation
since the peace deal was signed. The international
community needs to re-engage across the board on
CPA implementation but nowhere more urgently than
Abyei, where the risks of return to war are rising.
