Sudan clashes prompt UN pull-out

The UN has withdrawn non-essential staff from Sudan's town of Abyei after a day of clashes between government forces and southern former rebels.UN spokesman Khaled Mansour told the BBC two soldiers had died on each side. Three years after the signing of a peace deal, an administration is yet to be set up in the oil-rich region which is claimed by both north and south.
Mr Mansour said if an interim administration was not set up it could jeopardise the whole peace deal.The two decade north-south civil war is said to have cost the lives of 1.5 million people."This is indeed one of the most serious issues facing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between south and north," Mr Mansour told the BBC's Network Africa programme.He said because of the dispute the town lacked even the most basic services which made the area a "tinderbox".As part of the 2005 peace deal, the south is due to vote in 2011 on whether or not to seek independence from the north."Everybody's talking about it in the media as a rich oil-rich town, but it's a very poor town and that's why people are on edge."Deng Kual Deng, a resident of the town, told the BBC that the market area had been hit by mortar fire, but that there had been a lull in fighting overnight. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7402305.stm
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