SUDAN / ABYEI DISPLACED

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that an estimated 20,000 people have fled the urban centre in the contested Sudanese territory of Abyei since fighting broke out in the area last week. UNMIS

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:06
• Production Date: 9 March 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS ASSISTANCE MISSION IN SUDAN - UNMIS
• Subject Topical: PEACE AND SECURITY; DISARMAMENT; HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: SUDAN
• MAMS Id: U110309b

Description

STORY: SUDAN / ABYEI DISPLACED
TRT: 1:06
SOURCE: UNMIS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGAUGES: NATS

DATELINE: 2 MARCH 2011, ABYEI, SUDAN

1. Wide shot, people walking
2. Med shot, women carrying their bags
3. Med shot, children on donkey
4. Wide shot, people walking
5. Med shot, women carrying bags
6. Wide shot, desert blowing on the people
7. Wide shot, children carrying bags
8. Wide shot, ambulance and displaced people walking
9. Wide shot, women walking

Storyline

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported yesterday (8 Mar) that an estimated 20,000 people have fled the urban centre in the contested Sudanese territory of Abyei since fighting broke out in the area last week, adding that aid workers are ready to start delivering relief supplies to those displaced.

OCHA added that the internally displaced persons (IDPs), half of the town’s population, have sought refuge with relatives and other communities as far away as Agok, 40 kilometres south of Abyei town, and are in need of food, shelter, water, sanitation facilities and medical assistance.

Abyei, which is sandwiched between northern and southern Sudan, was due to have voted in a separate referendum in January, when Southern Sudan opted for secession, on which side it would join. But failure to establish a referendum commission and lack of agreement on who could vote precluded a ballot.

The area has been bedevilled by tensions between the northern and southern governments and frequent outbreaks of violence between local communities who are divided between nomadic pastoralists who support the north and ethnic groups who side with the south.

According to OCHA, an appeal for funds to carry out humanitarian work in Sudan this year remains greatly under-funded, with only 24 per cent of the $1.7 billion required received to date.