ABSTRACT
There is a widely known song by the famous Dinka singer from Abyei, the late Nyankol Mathiang, which asks “How was Abyei left behind?” It refers to when the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) struck a deal with the government of Sudan, ending the two-decade long north–south conflict in an accord that became known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Abyei is a Dinka territory that has a clear ethnic and cultural affinity to South Sudan but was annexed to northern Sudan in 1905 by the British colonial administration. Abyei is now part of the state of South Kordofan, the same state in which the Nuba Mountains are located, and has, since colonial times, been trying to rejoin South Sudan, with which it is more ethnically and politically compatible. That very same question about Abyei has also been asked repeatedly over the last nine years with regard to the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan. It has also been asked about southern Blue Nile. Together, the Nuba Mountains, southern Blue Nile and Abyei are often collectively referred to as the “Three Areas,” referencing the breakup that gave rise to the independence of South Sudan. How any territory in what was Sudan remains unaddressed by the CPA is a piercing issue, one that no one—be they the CPA negotiators, the government of Sudan or activists from these areas—can answer with satisfaction. Be that as it may, it remains a vitally significant issue for anyone trying to understand why the “Three Areas” remain at war despite the fact that the peace agreement that ended Africa’s longest-running war (the Second Sudanese Civil War, 1983–2005) was supposed to be comprehensive in nature.
