JUBA: South Sudan's President Salva Kiir called Thursday north Sudan to withdraw its forces from the disputed Abyei region but said there would be no war over the incursion and it would not derail independence. Southern Information Minister Barnaba Benjamin said the north was moving “thousands” of Arab Misseriya tribesmen into the disputed into villages of the southern Dinka Ngok tribe in Abyei. Abyei was a key battleground in Sudan's last civil war and is symbolic for both sides. The region is used all year round by the Dinka Ngok people and for part of the year by northern Misseriya nomads. “We will not go back to war, it will not happen,” Kiir told reporters in Juba, the capital of south Sudan which plans to become independent on July 9.
