Sudan to keep police in disputed Abyei region

Sudan will keep police forces in the disputed Abyei region bordering South Sudan for now, the state news agency SUNA said on Thursday, defying a call by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to withdraw.

Abyei has been a main bone of contention between the African neighbors, which came close to all-out war last month when border fighting escalated, the worst violence since South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July.

Last year, Sudan seized Abyei, a region with fertile grazing land and small oil reserves, after an attack on a military convoy blamed by the United Nations on the southern army.

Ban confirmed on Wednesday that the Sudanese army had withdrawn from Abyei as announced by the government but demanded at the same time that police also leave.

Sudanese army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid told SUNA that 169 armed policemen would stay until a planned Abyei police force staffed by both countries had been formed.

“There are 169 policemen staying who are equipped with regular arms and can perform duties until the (Abyei) police force agreed by the joint committee has been set up,” he said, according to SUNA.

He said Sudan had also left behind police to protect an oil field inside Abyei.

Some 3,800 Ethiopian U.N. peacekeepers are currently deployed in Abyei, which is meant to be demilitarised with a civilian administration under a U.N. peace plan.

South Sudan has already withdrawn its troops from Abyei but has kept 20 unarmed security personal in the area, an official told

REUTERS