JUBA: Members of a tribe close to the Sudanese government killed five people in an attack on villagers in the oil-rich Abyei region, a local official said on Tuesday.
Deng Arop Kuol linked Monday’s pre-dawn attack to a controversial referendum due to be held in January, when Abyei residents will decide whether they want to be part of north or south Sudan.
"A group of Misseriya belonging to the Popular Defense Forces (pro-government militia) attacked the village of Tajlei," north of Abyei city, said the regional administrator.
"They killed four civilians and a policeman," he said. "This tactic is aimed at emptying Abyei of residents before the referendum."
A referendum on southern independence in due to be held in January and the contested oil-rich region of Abyei will also face a separate referendum to decide whether it wants to join the north or the south of Sudan.
Sudan produces 500,000 barrels of oil per day and has reserves estimated at six billion barrels.
Most of it lies on the border between north and south. How to share the revenues has been a major source of tension in the run-up to the independence referendum.
At the end of June, Sudanese MPs, in a unanimous vote, selected the members of a commission to oversee the referendum on southern independence but the committee due to organize the Abyei vote has yet to be named.
The referendum on southern independence is a key provision of a 2005 peace deal which ended a more than two-decade war between north and south Sudan, a conflict in which two million people were killed.
