Renewed violence breaks out in disputed Sudanese border

At least 10 people were killed in the latest spate of violence in the disputed Abyei area of Sudan – with both the north and the south blaming one another for instigating the attack.

Last month Southern Sudan overwhelmingly voted for secession from northern Sudan in a peaceful referendum. It is due to become independent in July, but some southerners fear the northern government could use the unresolved status of Abyei as an excuse to send proxy militias to attack the south.

Northern and southern leaders are meeting this week in Ethiopia for negotiations on a number of critical topics related to the south's secession, including future arrangements for transporting the
landlocked south's considerable oil reserves and division of the country's national debts and assets.

A number of other challenges face South Sudan in the months leading up to its independence, including the lack of basic infrastructure and a rampant HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Fr. Alex Ojiera, a member of the Religious and Missionary Congregation of the Apostle of Jesus, says that the traditional culture of polygamy and inheritance of widows in South Sudan makes the country a fertile ground for the spread of HIV and AIDS:

“If one person is affected, around ten women are affected,” says Fr Ojiera. “And then these 10 people – if the husband passes away – the inheritance will also open these people to be inherited by other five people, who have also ten women.

“This is a danger to the church and to the society at large.”

The Southern Sudan Aids Commission estimates about 4.7 million people in the South are at risk of acquiring HIV, yet only some 60,000 of them have benefited from voluntary counselling and testing services.

Listen to report by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels: