Africa News
UN special envoy calls for Abyei ceasefire in Sudan (Roundup)
By DPA
May 16, 2008, 15:03 GMT

Nairobi/Khartoum - The UN's special representative in Sudan on Friday called for Sudanese government forces and former rebels from the south to respect a ceasefire agreed to end fighting that forced thousands of civilians to flee the oil-rich town of Abyei.

While Ashraf Jehangir Qazi welcomed the agreement to end the fighting, which was reached on Thursday, he said he was still 'very concerned' about the security situation.

He asked both sides to respect the ceasefire and remove all armed groups from the town.

Fighting between the army and the former southern rebels, whose bloody decades-long civil war against Khartoum was ended by a 2005 peace agreement, broke out on Wednesday following tensions in the town.

The UN airlifted out several hundred of its civilian workers and locals fled in droves amid heavy gunfire.

Tensions have remained high in the Abyei area since 2005 as it sits near the disputed border between the northern and southern regions and has significant oil deposits.

Qazi said that the fighting highlighted the difficulties that remain in implementing the peace deal. The two sides have yet to agree on borders or a government for the region.

Under the peace agreement, the autonomous Southern Sudan is to run a referendum in 2011 to decide whether is should claim complete independence.

The Abyei region, which was given a special administrative status, will at the same time vote on whether to stay in the north or join the south.

Over two million people died in the war between government forces from the Muslim-majority northern Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army from the largely Christian south.