Africa Union should act swiftly before it's too late

Sudan and their Southern counterparts need to move in and put their differences aside in the peace of the entire great lakes region. South Sudan walked in to independence with very many unsettled scores that ranged from the recent Heglig oil fields that ended with the withdrawal of the south. In 2011, the south Sudan voted for their cessation from the larger Sudan a move that was seen to bring peace in the region but it seems it’s far from being solved.

In the comprehensive peace agreement CPA of 2005 that was signed by both Juba and Khartoum in Nairobi, the current territorial borders were not to be demarcated but the Abyei region has persisted to be a source of conflict. During the International conference on the great lakes region of Africa ICGLR, leaders from the 10 member state region called upon Sudan who is also a member of the body to respect the independence of their southern counterparts. The question that the leaders of both Sudan and south Sudan need to answer is; for how long are we going to witness the blood shed in Sudan?

Last Friday the Khartoum foreign ministry said that it was committed to stop the hostilities but also stated that it had some reservations about certain provisions of the United Nations resolutions. Earlier on the United Nations had given a deadline of up to May 16 for both sides to withdraw their forces from the hotly contested oil rich Abyei region. I fault the decision by the AU-led team that oversaw the separation of the south Sudan from the oppressive north without solving the Abyei conflict. Today Sudan ceased the south’s Abyei but has ever since said it will withdraw its troops from the Abyei after a joint administrative body is established.

It is close to a year since the youngest African nation was born, born to an oppressive neighbour who is ceasing everything the child has. South Sudan is yet to pass a constitution that is meant to install civilian leadership but that seems to be a long wait owing to the fact that the country is fighting to retain its territorial integrity and also put up infrastructural development which was crippled by the prolonged civil war of between 1983-2005, 23years of fighting that left close to 2 million people dead and others displaced. Today, thousands of south Sudanese students are In Kenya for their education.
The US government last week through their diplomat for Africa Johnnie Carson said that the Au-led talks on the Abyei should encourage both sides to put proposals on the table that has caused rift between the two countries. I agree with Mr. Carson that peace in the region is pivotal to the development of the former war torn south Sudan.
As much as south Sudan is oppressed by the north, one is forced to believe that the Heglig occupation was a mere retaliatory to the Abyei cessation by the north. But Khartoum shouldn’t have withdrawn from the talks that lasted months trying to seek amicable solution to the Abyei due to the occupation of its own oil rich Heglig region! AU-led team should give Africa a lasting solution and should avoid blindly reaching out for a short term solutions that will result to conflicts in the future.

Among the issues that are causing conflict in the bi-nation conflict include; oil payments, the status of each country’s citizens residing in the other, the status of the Abyei region and resolution of disputed and claimed border areas and the demarcation of the frontiers. Earlier this month thousands of south Sudanese nationals in Khartoum boarded in a UN chartered plane back home a move that is seen to be part of the magnitude of the conflict. This leaves the rest of Africa confused on what is the actual situation in the 2 North African states.
South Sudan is playing innocent in the face of Africa. But what is more uncertain is whether its role in the peace talks will bring an amicable solution to the stability of the region. Sudan had earlier applied to join the East Africa community but their south counterparts has to yet offer their application to join the economic block. The main reason is to lock their former administration from benefiting from the common market protocol under the EAC treaty. The EAC treaty states that for a country to be a member of the EAC it must border at least one country within the EAC and south Sudan borders Uganda in the south and Kenya in the south east.

I believe the war of words between Khartoum and Juba does not solve the problem but it complicates the matter. Sudan’s president Omar El Bashir is quoted by the sections of the media referring to the south as ‘insects’ where the south’s diplomacy likened the term to the ‘cockroach’ which was intensively used by the Hutu extremist in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. South is also playing dirty by describing the North as a country controlled by Arabs and Muslims.

To sum up, Africa needs to act swiftly and calm the situation in south Sudan and demarcate the Abyei region reviewing the south Sudan’s territorial frontiers as things are slowly getting out of hand and the end may be too bitter to swallow.

Former UN secretary general Koffie Anan said, “Words can build, words soothe, words solve problems and words stop conflict.” And I believe the conflict in the Abyei can be resolved by the AU if at all it shows some commitment.