Abyei

Abyei. For months, years really, Abyei has been named as a flashpoint for conflict between the North and South. Abyei's permanent residents are Dinka, black Africans who identify with South Sudan. However, every year Misseriya, Arab tribes aligned with the North, migrate through the area in search of pasture lands and water. You can see how this has led to a cyclical conflict.

Complicating matters is that Abyei is right on the border between the North and South and has oil. Both the North and the South have been vying for control of the area throughout the separation negotiations, and now what many people had feared was inevitable has happened, violent conflict for the area. You can read more about the details of the situation here, but what it boils down to is that the Northern military has pushed SPLA troops and the resident Dinka out of the area. Between 5,000 and 15,000 Misseriya have now moved in, in what appears to be an attempt to change the demographics of the area or even commit what UN officials have called "ethnic cleansing."

Many people are afraid that this act of open war between the North and South will throw the negotiations over separation into turmoil and derail the South's independence, scheduled for early July. There are even reports that the North is preparing for war. So far, however, Southern President Salva Kiir promises that he will not bated back into war. Still, the mass movement of people from Abyei and the surrounding areas is still devastating and there is no clear path to resolving the situation. The offensive has led many to question how the international community can still tolerate Bashir in power... and fed worries that Sudan cannot be split peacefully.

John and I are worried, but we are not despondent. As one of John's students from Abyei told us last night after describing all the schools that had been destroyed, "All the people have left... but God is still there." We ask for your prayers for Abyei and that God would still be active there!

-Stephanie
Photo of a Dinka woman in Abyei before the fighting, courtesy of the New York Times