UN Security Council asks Sudan to withdraw troops from Abyei

United Nations -The UN Security Council has demanded the withdrawal of Sudanese troops from the disputed Abyei region.

A statement, Friday from the 15-nation Council strongly condemned the Sudanese government’s continued military control over the Abyei area, resulting in the displacement of tens of thousands of residents.
 
The statement, read out by Amb. Nelson Messone of Gabon, the Security Council president for the month June, said Sudan’s military presence in the area  constituted “serious violation” of previous agreements.

“The Council calls on the Sudanese Armed Forces to ensure an immediate halt to all looting, burning, and illegal resettlement,” the statement said.

“The Council stresses that all those responsible for violations of international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, as well as those who ordered those acts, will be held accountable,” it added.

The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that clashes between the north and south have threatened to unravel a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war.
 
On May 21, violence and looting broke out in Abyei town after the northern troops took control of the area.

Two days earlier, forces from the south had shot at a convoy carrying northern troops and UN peacekeepers.

The Council called “on all parties to respect humanitarian rinciples and allow all humanitarian personnel timely and unfettered access to vulnerable individuals and communities affected by the fighting.”
 
The UN estimates that about 45,000 people have been displaced in the region.