Sudan offers tribe in disputed region citizenship
KHARTOUM, Sudan, MAY 9 (AP/UNB) - Sudan has offered African tribesmen in the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei its citizenship in an effort to woo them to the north.
The offer comes amid an increasingly volatile conflict with the now independent South Sudan. On Wednesday, the South Sudanese military said Sudan resumed aerial bombardment of the south's territory.
In Khartoum, Interior Ministry official Salaheddin Khalifa told the official SUNA news agency the Sudanese government has decided that members of Abyei's Dinka Ngok tribe can become northern citizens.
Abyei is home to the African, south-aligned Dinka Ngok tribe but the land is also used by nomadic Arab tribesmen from the north for grazing cattle.
A 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of north-south civil war left the final status of Abyei undecided.
The offer comes amid an increasingly volatile conflict with the now independent South Sudan. On Wednesday, the South Sudanese military said Sudan resumed aerial bombardment of the south's territory.
In Khartoum, Interior Ministry official Salaheddin Khalifa told the official SUNA news agency the Sudanese government has decided that members of Abyei's Dinka Ngok tribe can become northern citizens.
Abyei is home to the African, south-aligned Dinka Ngok tribe but the land is also used by nomadic Arab tribesmen from the north for grazing cattle.
A 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of north-south civil war left the final status of Abyei undecided.
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