Northern Sudanese Warn South Over Contested Area

KAMPALA, Uganda — The Sudanese government said Wednesday that it would not recognize the soon-to-be independent nation of south Sudan if the southern government tried to annex the contested territory of Abyei, raising the stakes between the two sides only 10 weeks before the south’s independence is expected to be announced.

A spokesman for the government of northern Sudan, reiterating comments President Omar Hassan al-Bashir made earlier in the day, said the southern Sudanese had no right to claim Abyei — an oil-rich region that straddles the disputed border between north and south Sudan — as their own.

“How can they decide unilaterally that Abyei is part of the south?” asked Rabie A. Atti, a Sudanese government spokesman. “We are now looking for stability with the south and north.”

“If they refuse” to compromise over the future of Abyei, Mr. Atti said, “the situation will be as it was,” referring to the decades when the two sides fought civil wars in which millions died.

The comments appeared to come in reaction to news reports that southern Sudanese officials were drafting a transitional constitution that claims Abyei as part of the new south Sudan. The southern Sudanese government could not be reached immediately for comment.

Since southern Sudan voted in a referendum in January to separate from the north and form its own country, Mr. Bashir has issued shows of support and reconciliation.

But on Wednesday night, Mr. Bashir laid claim to Abyei as well, according to a local news report, saying, “I say it and repeat it for the million times, Abyei is northern and will remain northern.”

Speaking on Thursday in the Sudanese state of Southern Kordofan, near Abyei, Mr. Bashir added that if there was “any attempt” by the south to “secede Abyei,” the north would refuse to recognize it as a separate state.

Abyei, which has a mixture of African and Arab cultures in the middle of Sudan and sits on a wealth of oil reserves, has long been a focus of violence between the north and south. The territory was supposed to hold its own referendum this year to decide whether to join the north or south, after generations of civil war, but so far that has not happened.

Satellite images from a project supported by Google and the Enough Project show both sides massing forces along the border.

“Bashir is a demonstrated utilitarian,” said John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project and a member of the satellite image project. “He makes extreme statements designed to impact negotiations and intimidate internationals. And he makes good on his threats when he perceives there to be no consequence for doing so.

“If the right deal can be struck,” Mr. Prendergast said, “Abyei’s status can be resolved.”