Context
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir warned on Sunday that the disputed Abyei region is a potential source of conflict with the newly independent Southern Sudan. Abyei is still a part of Sudan and the administration in power there should be respected, Bashir said in an interview one day after Southern Sudan’s independence. He talked about his grief over the country’s disintegration, but said that it was essential for peace. The south struggled to split up for decades and paid a price of 1.5 million lives.
