JUBA – South Sudan’s main opposition party, SPLM-IO, led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has called for recognition of the 2013 Abyei referendum in which Dinka Ngok voted overwhelmingly to be part of the world’s youngest country.
The call by Machar’s group comes after Abyei academic and diplomat Dr. Francis Mading Deng unveiled a proposal in which he suggested the establishment of protectorate or self-governing state in the disputed region.
In a statement this afternoon, Machar’s office said the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition has always been an advocate for the rights of the people of Abyei and made it clear that it is not a part of the proposal made by Dr. Francis.
“The SPLM-IO is not a part of the suggestions of making Abyei a Protectorate or self-governing state as proposed by Dr. Francis Mading Deng,” the statement signed by Gordon Yien Gordon, the Acting Press Secretary in the Office of the First Vice President, reads in part.
“We believe that Abyei destiny cannot be determined by individuals since it has become a national issue which requires our collective ideas and views as people of South Sudan,” the statement added.
The statement said people working against the will of the Abyei people should be disciplined and said the main armed opposition group has always respected the will of the Abyei people and that the outcome of the 2013 unilateral referendum should be respected.
“Individuals or members who have been found propagating against the will of the people of Abyei must be disciplined by the party as per (10) code of conduct, internal regulations and constitution, among others,” the statement said.
“Abyei People had voted in a Referendum and we should not stand against their will rather to respect the result of the Referendum,” the statement added.
It added that the group “hope that, the African Union High Implementation Panel headed by former South African president would come out and share on concrete solution to the status of Abyei.”
This is not the first time for the main armed opposition group to call for recognition of the Abyei referendum.
In 2021, the Chairperson of the SPLM-IO in Abyei Nyenagwek Kuol who is now the Executive Director in the office of the First Vice President called for the recognition of the referendum and urged “the Ngok people to voluntarily and expeditiously return home to Abyei” and for UN to “incorporate in the UNISFA mandate construction of roads, schools and health facilities in Abyei.”
“We call upon the governments of the two countries (Sudan and South Sudan) to recognize the results of the communal referendum which was held on 31 October 2013, in which the people of Abyei clearly determined their political destiny as south Sudanese. As such, Abyei is 100% South Sudanese,” she said in the statement.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in 2005 was supposed to give Abyei a separate referendum on whether to be part of Sudan or South Sudan. However, the two sides still cannot agree on who is eligible to vote in the referendum and so it has not officially been held.
Dinka-Ngok on October 31st 2013 voted overwhelmingly to join South Sudan in an unofficial referendum.
Tim Flatman, an independent observer who witnessed the vote, was quoted by the AFP at the time that 63,433 took part in the process. He said only 12 people representing 0.02% voted to join Sudan, while 63,421 representing 99.98% of the votes, decided to be part of South Sudan.
However, the vote was dismissed by the Arab Misseriya as well as by the governments in Sudan and South Sudan.
