President Omar al-Bashir appointed an official from South Sudan to head the interim administration in the contested oil-rich region of Abyei, where recent violence threatened the country's fragile north-south peace, his spokesman said Friday.
Spokesman Mahjub Faidul said the development was an "important step" in settling the Abyei dispute, but stressed that it shouldn't predetermine the result of or influence international arbitration on the region.
Al-Bashir appointed a member of the southern Sudan's People Liberation Movement, Arop Mobak Toj, as head of Abyei's administration, and an Arab from the president's ruling party from the north as his deputy.
The 2005 peace deal which ended Sudan's 21-year-long north-south civil war created a unity government and gave the south a semiautonomous status, but left Abyei's borders and future status unresolved.
The region, coveted by northerners and southerners for its rich oil resources and green pastures, has repeatedly threatened to derail the peace deal. A border that was proposed by an international commission would have put Abyei in the south, but this was rejected by the north, and the region was accorded a special status.
Since 2005, Abyei was left without an independent administration and was the site of repeated clashes. Last year, the southerners left the country's unity government for several months because of what they said was foot-dragging on Abyei before eventually returning.
Tensions escalated and fighting broke out in May between Sudan's army and the army of the former rebels. It left about 50,000 displaced and the town all but totally deserted.
To deal with the flare-up, al-Bashir and his southern vice President Salva Kiir agreed in June to refer the Abyei border issue to international arbitration and set up a new interim administration for the troubled border region. A joint military unit recently completed its deployment to the area.
There was no immediate reaction to al-Bashir's appointment from the south. The make-up of the Abyei administration is considered fundamental for the peace deal.
The southerners had earlier insisted the head of administration be a local resident of Abyei from the ethnic African tribe of the Ngok Dinka. Mobak Toj is a local resident from that tribe.
The southerners will make up the majority on the local administration and council, which will be entrusted with the spending of a development fund from the region's oil revenues. The fund is based on contribution from the north and south share of the oil resources.
The presidential appointment comes on the eve of a visit by U.S. envoy to Sudan, Richard Williamson, to the country.
Williamson angrily left Sudan in June because he said he had failed to bring the southerners and northerners closer to an agreement on Abyei.
