The Repatriates to Abyei: a Denied Past and an Uncertain Future

Thousands of people have packed up their luggage and returned to Abyei, the small spot between the North and South which has become the Achilles heel of the Naivasha Agreement. Some have come hoping for a better future, but what awaits them is extremely disappointing. Abyei, though rich in oil, is poor in everything else.
 
Ashoul Paul is a 55 year old widow whom I met when she was helping her sons take their baggage off the huge truck that transported them to Abyei. Although she is old, she has very high morale, and actively works like a twenty year old girl. Her children and grandchildren gathered around me asking to take photographs next to the luggage, while Ashoul started to sing a traditional Dinka song talking about homesickness, according to the interpreters who were with me.

Click here for the CPA chapter on the resolution of the Abyei Conflict

Ashoul tells how she came from Wadi Halfa, thanks to the voluntary repatriation program. She used to work in river navigation. Her husband died, leaving her with eight boys and girls. She worked hard to raise them by herself thanks to her ongoing work. \"I am now in my homeland which I left when I was a little girl. I will cultivate our land, and my older sons will help me raise their younger brothers and sisters. I am not afraid of the future\", she adds.
 
I also met a 38-year-old woman who had been living in Khartoum since leaving Abyei in the mid-1980s. She has sons and daughters. Her husband also died few years ago. But, unlike Ashoul, her children\'s education has been her main concern. She has a real fear that the schools in Abyei are irregular. However, she stressed her unwillingness to leave Abyei again.
 
The trip was very arduous and full of dangers and difficulties. Olwiah Ajanq, who has come from Wad Medani, the capital of Al Gezira State in the centre of Sudan, complains that most of the wooden furniture broke on the way. Others criticise the lack of service rendered by organisations accompanying the repatriates, especially with regard to health. There was no ambulance accompanying the convoy of more than two thousand people during four days of traveling. A woman gave birth to a dead child, and a two-year old child could not survive the difficult circumstances of the trip.
 
Why are they coming back? This is the question that came to my mind as soon as I started my field journey. Why do they suffer hardship and trouble, leaving their homes and livelihood and returning to an uncertain future, to one of the poorest lands, despite what is commonly reported about its strategic, economic and political importance?

Abyei: The land of oil or the land of darkness?

Abyei is an extremely poor city, a surprise for most visitors. The global media frequently repeats the words \"rich of oil\" when mentioning Abyei, so the reader, listener or viewer might think that this town is one of the world\'s most luxurious places. But, when you go to buy a litre of gasoline, you will be stunned that its price is up to one US Dollar - life in a city of confusing contradictions. You see the most prestigious cars waddling on non-asphalted roads, carrying UN and NGOs personnel, journalists, and government officials. However, the town population\'s share of such cars is nothing but the intense dust they cause. People move walking or on donkeys, because the 50,000 inhabitants of the city have no public transportation at all, except for three motorcycles with three-wheels, \"Tuktuks\" or \"Rickshaws\" as Sudanese call them.
 

Click here for the Abyei ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration

The series of paradoxes is continuous, which explains the size of the gap between the reality of Abyei town and its image impressed in the masses\' minds. Although the name of Abyei has become well-known and meetings to solve its crisis have been held in many capitals of the world, the people of Abyei are to a large extent outside these interests. The mobile phone network is very poor. Sometimes, you may wait for more than an hour to make a call, and many hours to connect to the Internet. Only radio and TV channels link this remote spot to the world, but their availability depends on the financial resources which are of course not available to the public. For example: a number of the citizens in Abyei were not able to answer our questions on their expectations about the outcome of the critical presidential meeting on the issue of their area since they had not even heard about the meeting.

While the international community highlights Abyei day and night, darkness actually prevails in the town and its villages, still awaiting electric power. Only government institutions and some of the very rich have generators running normally only for a few hours a day, due to the high cost of gasoline. Adding insult to injury, the city of Abyei Ð the scene of the conflict on oil returns Ð has only a single fuel pump, where gasoline and fuel are sold in primitive barrels and plastic pots.
 
In addition, people suffer from increasing prices of commodities. By chance, I heard a conversation between a vendor and a woman buying some basic goods. She said: \"Why do you sell beans for one pound? It is too expensive!\" Adam, the owner of the shop was very quiet when he answered her by asking another question: \"When have you come to Abyei?\" The woman said that she had come from Wad Medani with the group of voluntary returnees the previous evening, and it was her first shopping in Abyei. A few moments later, Adam turned to me saying: \"Those returnees will soon adapt to high prices.\" He then talked about goods imported from Khartoum, El Obeid, and some other northern cities, and the overstated prices imposed by adventurers merchants due to the lack of competition in the region.

When I asked the returnees about the secret behind their eagerness to return, despite the poor services in the region, the majority\'s answers were emotional and similar to a large extent. Ayala Denq Majid, aged 38, said: \"We will never return to the North, even if war comes. It is better for us to die in our land. I can\'t describe the happiness I feel as my relatives have returned to the land of our parents and grandparents. It is enough to live in our homeland. Believe me! Nothing is equivalent to living in one\'s own country\".

\"Everybody here dreams of the bright future, based on the politicians\' promises\"

A worker in Abyei market, however, provided a more pragmatic explanation of the intensive return saying: \"Everybody here dreams of the bright future, based on the politicians\' promises regarding the future development of the region because of the oil wells. In addition, they are coming back to vote in the referendum on the region\'s dependency to North or South. Homesickness is present of course, but it is not the only reason as many claim.\"

Will the future disappoint those who dream of a better life in the \"paradise of oil\", Abyei? It is, no doubt, a great challenge, especially if we take into account the specialists\' reports which predict the depletion of the region\'s oil fields no later than 2016. Then, the challenge to the decision-makers and civil society in Abyei, posed by voluntarily repatriates, will be clear.

In this context, Dianq Dinq Agok, President of the Youth Federation in Abyei which observes the conditions of repatriates, expressed his fear about the difficult access to basic health, education and sanitation services, especially for the returnees to rural areas. The President of the Popular Movement Women Assembly, Ayar Wor, regretted her failure to provide assistance to new arrivals.

More \"Abyei Voices - Messages for the Future\", by Yobu Annet and others.

Finally, Bionq Achuil Blake, Mayor of Adior, noted the suffering that is expected to face the repatriates in Abyei because most of them have no money to start their new life. However, he emphasised that the residents of his district will share their few properties with their returning relatives. He also predicted that the UN will contribute to support the returnees.