South Sudan has given the strongest signal yet of its intention to claim the disputed border region of Abyei as part of its territory, based on the results of a controversial referendum held more than 11 years ago, the outcome of which it initially rejected.
First Vice President Riek Machar officially received the referendum report on January 4 from a team from Abyei Area Administration led by Chief Administrator Dr Chol Deng Alak and promised to forward it to the executive and parliament for adoption, a policy shift from October 2013, when Juba rejected the near-unanimous decision by one of the two main ethnic communities in Abyei to be in South Sudan.
