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In Pictures: Return to Abyei

Oil-rich region holds disputed referendum to decide whether to join Sudan or South Sudan.

Women and children sing and chant for Abyei independence from Sudan in the town of Agok, in South Sudan. Tens of thousands are now returning to the region in order to participate in a controversial referendum.
By Ilya Gridneff
Published On 29 Oct 2013

Abyei, Sudan – The Ngok Dinka tribe is holding a controversial referendum on whether their oil-rich Abyei area should join South Sudan.

The quarrel over Abyei is one of the main unresolved disputes after the 2005 peace agreement between Sudan and South Sudan, which ended a bloody civil war and led to the independence of South Sudan.  

Both the Sudan and South Sudan governments, along with the African Union that is playing a mediation role, do not recognise the referendum.

About 100,000 Ngok Dinka returned to Abyei for the referendum, which will be conducted over a three-day period with results announced on Thursday.

The region’s majority Ngok Dinka people are believed to be in favour of joining South Sudan. The Sudan-allied Misseriya nomads, who come to Abyei to find pasture for their cattle, will not be allowed to participate in the referendum and have warned it cannot take place.

Clashes between both ethnic groups have occurred sporadically and flared dramatically in 2008 with hundreds of casualties.

There are concerns the referendum could stoke more violence.


Returnees from Juba walk the road from Agok to their birthplace of Abyei. Tens of thousands are slowly returning to Abyei, some from as far as Australia and America, with the hopes of making their voice heard in an upcoming referendum.
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Betty Phillip, 44: "I travelled eight days to be here. I(***)ve even slept on the side of the road because the road was too bad to get from Agok to Abyei town. The land is ours, even if they are going to kill us, we will not go. That is why we have come back. To show the world Abyei is ours."
Most of Abyei(***)s infrastructure was destroyed when Sudanese Armed Forces attacked and seized the district in 2008 and again in 2011.
Achan Ayuel, 31, is from Abyei but is staying in Kuajok, South Sudan. She(***)s now returned. "I came for the referendum to vote to make the final decision and stop the fighting. We want peace through this referendum."
Men cast fishing nets alongside the bridge that crosses into Abyei. The bridge was blown up in May 2011 when Sudanese Forces attacked Abyei, but the bridge has since been rebuilt by the UN peace keeping force, UNISFA.
A peacekeeper walks past returnees who have settled at a UN-supported camp. Thousands of returnees are making their way back to Abyei in order take part in an upcoming unilateral referendum.
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With little infrastructure left, most returnees must take shelter wherever they can find it.
Michael Manutwe, 24: "People should know Abyei is South Sudan not Sudan. That is why there is the referendum. This has been going on for too long. The Miseriya are now our enemies."
Recent returnees stand in the doorway of a destroyed building at a UN-supported camp.
Akuach Athuai, 42: "We need the referendum to be free. We are not free now. We are between the two countries of South Sudan and Sudan. So they want to take the referendum to be in one country as now we are both."
A man walks through the rubble of Abyei(***)s church. Like much of Abyei town, the church was destroyed when Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) took the area in May 2011.
The entrance to what once was Abyei town(***)s Ministry of Agriculture.
UNISFA peace-keeping unit patrol drives past the wreckage of Abyei(***)s mosque. It was destroyed by local residents in May after Abyei(***)s Paramount Chief Kuol Deng Kuol was assassinated.