Seizure of Sudan flashpoint ‘illegal invasion’

Northern troops seized control of most of Abyei district on Sudan’s north-south border yesterday, Khartoum said as the south accused it of an “illegal invasion” that threatens thousands of civilians.

The seizure, coming in the run-up to international recognition of the south’s independence in July, was condemned by world powers as a threat to peace between Sudan’s north and south.

Abyei was granted special status under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended 22 years of devastating civil war between north and south and requires both sides to keep their troops out until a vote on its future.

“We are in control of Abyei and all the (Bahr al-Arab) area north of the bank of the river,” Khartoum’s Minister of State for the Presidency, Amin Hassan Omer, told a news conference in Khartoum.