JUBA, 18 March 2011 (IRIN) – After the apparent false dawn of a peaceful secession referendum for Southern Sudan in January, deteriorating relations between Khartoum and Juba, coupled with spiralling insecurity in the South and the disputed region of Abyei, are raising grave concerns internationally.
Here is a summary of key events since the 9 January referendum, in which southern voters, many of whom lived through decades of civil war, opted almost unanimously to secede. The Republic of South Sudan is due to come into existence on 9 July 2011.
7-9 January: Dozens are killed in clashes between migratory Misseriya Arab nomads from the North and settled Ngok Dinka residents in Abyei, a semi-autonomous region, most of whose permanent inhabitants supported the South during Sudan’s civil war. Delays in a separate referendum on Abyei’s political future remain a source of tension.
4-5 February: Fighting breaks out between factions of the North’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) stationed in the flashpoint southern town of Malakal with elements of the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) after the refusal of some SAF elements recruited from militia groups to hand over heavy weapons ahead of their planned redeployment to the north. The fighting spreads to other areas of Upper Nile state, where other SAF units are stationed. More than 60 SAF soldiers are killed.
7 February: Official results of the referendum announced in Khartoum. More than 98 percent of southerners voted for independence, according to the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission. Results are immediately accepted by President Omar el-Bashir’s National Congress Party, while southern president Salva Kiir counsels his people to avoid pre-emptive celebrations.
9 February: A minister in the southern government is shot dead by one of his in-laws in his office in Juba, the southern capital. The crime highlighted the issue of lax security in southern government offices and the widespread phenomenon of weapons in the hands of civilians.
9-10 February: Fighting between the SPLA and rebels loyal to renegade SPLA commander George Athor breaks out in the northeastern corner of Jonglei state, marking the de facto breakdown of a 5 January ceasefire between the two sides. Southern army officials initially report 105 people, mainly civilians, killed in the clashes, but the death toll later spikes after more civilian casualties are reported from the town of Phom el-Zeraf, where scores of civilians died when they fled into the river as Athor forces shot at them.
14 February:
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