A civic leader of the Misseriya tribe in Diffra in northern Abyei Area has downplayed the threat of war stemming from tensions over the ongoing community referendum carried out by the Ngok Dinka.

Since the start of the polling yesterday, there have been various reports of potential insecurity or mobilization for conflict. According to a correspondent of Radio Tamazuj in Abyei town, it was feared among the Ngok Dinka that the head of the Misseriya tribe had made threats of war.

Mukhtar Babo Nimr, nazir of the Misseriya tribe, was rumored to have reached the main town of Mujlad and declared that if South Sudan does not stop the referendum, then they are going to attack Abyei. It was not clear whether these remarks had been broadcast on Fula Radio or perhaps were made elsewhere or not at all.  

Asked about this report, civil society leader Ambadi Yahia Kabashi said that he did not expect conflict between the two tribes. Kabashi, who serves as secretary-general of the Youth Association for Supporting Abyei, contended that Babo Nimr was speaking in a personal capacity only. 

In an interview to be aired tomorrow morning on Radio Tamazuj, he pointed to peaceful measures taken by his civil society group in recent days, including a march through Diffra that ended in the presentation of a memorandum to the UN Interim Security Force in Abyei.

He said that the memorandum rejected the ongoing referendum in Abyei as non-comprehensive. He added that the African Union mediation was responsible in this case.

Kabashi also criticized the media for depicting the issue as a dispute between two tribes, rather than an issue between the two nations, stressing that the Misseriya have no problem with the Ngok Dinka.