Ngok Dinka citizenship falls through cracks of post-split Sudan
Nearly a month after the secession of South Sudan, the ethnic Ngok Dinka who inhabit Abyei have become pawns in a power play between Juba and Khartoum.
Reaching an agreement on the disputed region of Abyei was never going to be easy. The fertile area that straddles the border between north and South Sudan was supposed to hold a separate referendum to decide its future status, a provision of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended two decades of civil war.
The last decision of the National Council is a step in the right direction, a correction of previous mistakes.”
The referendum never took place because the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) rejected voting rights for the ethnic Misseriya, a migratory group that does not reside in Abyei year-round.
Now that South Sudan is independent, the Ngok Dinka are in legal limbo. While their stated loyalty has always been with the south, the geographical region they inhabit along with migratory groups officially belongs to the north.
So it came as some surprise when the Sudanese National Assembly announced it would withdraw the citizenship of Abyei’s Ngok Dinka, only to backpedal on its decision last month.
The last decision is a step in the right direction, a correction of previous mistakes,” said Zakaria Atem, chair of the National Congress Party (NCP) in Abyei.
Khartoum had already adopted an amendment stating all southern Sudanese residing in the north would be considered foreigners” and lose their Sudanese citizenship. Juba said it would grant dual nationality to northerners living in South Sudan.
For more background information read: "Sudan’s split takes shape of exclusion as Khartoum fires southerners in private sector" by Adam Abkar Ali
The ruling National Congress Party (NCP), in placing ethnicity over geography, argued that its decision was in accordance with the definitions of the 2009 Referendum Act favoured by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
But Khartoum stepped on a political fault line by announcing it would revoke Sudanese citizenship for the people of Abyei.
The Ngok Dinka have the right to Sudanese citizenship, and the decision to withdraw it was wrong, like inciting a war without fighting,” said Kamal Bolad of the opposition Ba’ath party.
In a press release, Ahmed Ibrahim el-Tahir, speaker of the National Assembly, reaffirmed that Ngok Dinka in the region of Abyei have the right to Sudanese citizenship since Abyei is a northern area,” but warned that their nationality, along with that of the northern Misseriya, would be nullified if Abyei became part of South Sudan.
StilSUDAN analysis: Citizenship dispensary
The Sudanese government has announced complicated regulations to determine which southerners and other "foreigners" are allowed to remain in the north. Observers warn the agenda is being set by ultra-nationalist leaders such as El-Tayeb Mustafa, whose separatist party wants to prohibit ethnic Dinka from any affiliation with the north.
I demand that Ngok Dinka be excluded," he said. "They should follow the south because they are southerners even if they are from Abyei.”
Some media have reported that the reversal of the government’s denial of Ngok Dinka citizenship was welcomed by Dinka communities in Khartoum.
Ngok Dinka have the right to Sudanese citizenship, and the decision to withdraw it was wrong.”
But to Khamis Kat, a Dinka researcher from Abyei, it is simply meaningless…another move in an obvious political game, which for us is completely unacceptable."
The citizenship issue is fraught with administrative remnants of Africa’s colonial legacy. Anglo-Egyptian authorities transferred Abyei from southern Sudan to the north in 1905, but the Ngok Dinka felt their ethnic and cultural ties remained with the south, and they sided with the rebels fighting against the north during Sudan’s civil war.
How can we accept the nationality of the same government who armed the Arab tribes that waged war against us?” Kat asked. We do not want to join north Sudan, we are southerners and we will remain southerners, no matter the outcome of the present dialogue on the future of Abyei.”
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In May, tens of thousands of Abyei residents were forced to flee violence after southern forces attacked a UN convoy of northern troops and the Sudanese Army responded by occupying a large part of the region. Over 4,000 Ethiopian peacekeepers have just begun arriving in the area in accordance with a UN resolution passed at the end of June.
The uncertainty over the citizenship status of Ngok Dinka is compounded by disagreements among northern Sudanese lawmakers, whose conflicting amendments on the issue amounted to what one observer compared to a political auction.
Some influential leaders in political parties are the decision makers themselves, but instead of considering what’s best for the nation, they are amending laws to protect their own interests,” said Muhammad Ali Khojaly, a minority rights activist.
