ABSTRACT
On May 16, 2008, Brigade 31 of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) together with local allied militia attacked Abyei town, burning it to the ground and sending thousands of Ngok Dinka citizens fleeing into the bush. Estimates of the displaced rangedwidely from 40,000 to 106,000 people, a disproportionate number of whom were women, children and the elderly.1 The opening sentence to a Washington Post article written at the time read simply, “This town was obliterated.”2
