Addis Ababa — Ethiopian Prime Minister,
Hailemariam Desalegn, said on Friday that his country will not recognise
the recently conducted referendum to decide on the future of the Abyei
region which is claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan.
Hailemariam made the remarks while holding talks with visiting
Sudanese Foreign Minister, Ali Karti. The African Union (AU) had
proposed that a referendum be held in October but the two sides could
not agree on who could participate in the referendum.
The Dinka Ngok who are resident in the area held a unilateral
referendum at the end of last month, which saw over 99% of voters opt to
transfer the oil-rich region back to South Sudan from where it was
transfered for administrative purposes in 1905 during the Anglo-Egyptian
condominium.
A senior government official who attended the meeting said on
Saturday that the Ethiopian prime minister, who also is the current
chair of the AU has made clear that it was the Ethiopian government's
and the continental bloc's decision that a unilateral move to decide the
fate of Abyei is unacceptable.
The AU has said that the vote was illegal further describing it as a threat to peace between Sudan and South Sudan.
According to outcomes of the referendum reveled on Thursday 99.98% of
the Dinka Ngok voted to join South Sudan. However neither Khartoum nor
Juba have recognized the poll.
During his meeting with the Ethiopian premier, Karti reiterated that
his country won't accept any unilateral actions taken to determine the
fate of Abyei.
Since South Sudan officially proclaimed independence in 2011, the
final status of Abyei is one of the key and sensitive issue that remain
to be settled between the two former civil war rival neighbors.
Ethiopia has deployed 4,000 peacekeepers to Abyei as part of the
United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), which was
established in June 2011 just one month before South Sudan voted to
secede from Sudan.
The Sudanese foreign minister also briefed the Ethiopian prime
minister on the current developments between Sudan and South Sudan
particularly on president Bashir's recent trip to Juba.
The two sides discussed the Ethiopia-Sudan Joint Ministerial
Commission meeting, which is scheduled to be held in Khartoum next month
as well as ways to further bolster bilateral relations.
Source: www.allafrica.com
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