The co-chairman of the Abyei Joint Oversight committee and a senior official of South Sudan’s government, Luka Biong Deng expressed astonishment at Khartoum’s intentions to blockade the arrival of food to Abyei and South Sudan.
In an interview with Radio Tamazuj, Luka Biong accused the Sudanese government of deliberately preventing food from reaching Abyei and South Sudan, and blocking the border at a time when Sudanese nomadic groups are grazing with their livestock in South Sudan.
He described the Sudanese government’s actions of expelling South Sudanese from Sudan and restricting the border to try to stop people communicating at the border as ‘irresponsible behaviour’.
Biong said the Abyei Joint Committee’s plan is to support and develop the oil in the area, to help displaced people who fled fighting to return to their homes, and provide necesary health, veterinary and educational services for nomadic groups.