U.N. Sudan chief raises alarm over oil area troops

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – The head of the United Nations in Sudan accused south Sudanese soldiers Saturday of straying into the contested oil area of Abyei, stoking tension ahead of a sensitive ruling on the region’s boundaries.

The armies of north Sudan and its semi-autonomous south, which clashed in Abyei last year, had agreed to stay out of the area to prevent further escalations in violence, as part of a deal brokered by the United Nations.

U.N. special representative Ashraf Qazi said Saturday he had received several “reports and confirmations” that soldiers from the south’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and police had entered land around Abyei and urged them to withdraw.

Both north and south Sudan claim Abyei, which is close to key oil fields and a pipeline.

The borders of Abyei were one of the most sensitive issues left undecided in a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war between Sudan’s Muslim north and its mostly Christian south.

Reuters