Transitional Justice Elusiveness: Case Study of Abyei in 'Sudan'

Abstract

On 26th May 2006, Government of Sudan and Sudan People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) signed a protocol to resolve the Abyei Conflict, which dates back to 1905. The resolution bestowed Abyei a special administrative status allowing its citizens to belong both to Bahr el Ghazal in South Sudan and Kordofan in Sudan. Section 1 of the protocol defined Abyei territory as the area of Nine Ngok Dinka Chiefdoms transferred to Kordofan in 1905 (1.1.2) while Section 6 mentioned specifically the Ngok Dinka as residents of Abyei (6.1 (a)). The Misseriya and other communities retained rights to graze and move around the territory of Abyei. Today however the conflict in Abyei is escalating with the Misseriya claiming equal residence rights as the Ngok Dinka, the UN deploying special forces to provide a temporary solution to Abyei problem while the voices of the Ngok Dinka is being suppressed and their annexation to Sudan is becoming imminent. Though solutions to solve this situation were already provided in the 2006 protocol that provided for a referendum to be carried simultaneously with that of South Sudan to decide whether Abyei would maintain its special administrative status or join Bahr el Ghazal; by 2013 however, neither the 2006 protocol or others seemed to provide a solution leading the Ngok Dinka to conduct a unilateral referendum to join Bahr el Ghazal. This study intends to explore the challenges of the Ngok Dinka in accessing justice through assessing the role played by various stakeholders such as Sudan, South Sudan, IGAD, African Union and the international community.