Abyei in the context of "Dinka people"

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA, Arabic: اتفاقية السلام الشامل, romanized: Ittifāqiyyah al-salām al-šāmil), also known as the Naivasha Agreement, was an accord signed on 9 January 2005, by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Government of Sudan. The CPA was meant to end the Second Sudanese Civil War, develop democratic governance countrywide, and share oil revenues. It also set a timetable for a Southern Sudanese independence referendum.

The peace process was encouraged by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), in addition to a "troika" of donor countries comprising the United States, United Kingdom, and Norway.

A referendum took place in Southern Sudan from 9 to 15 January 2011, on whether the region should remain a part of Sudan or become independent. The referendum was one of the consequences of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement between the Khartoum central government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M).

A simultaneous referendum was supposed to be held in Abyei on whether to become part of South Sudan but it was postponed due to conflict over demarcation and residency rights.

The Abyei status referendum is a delayed referendum that was originally due to be held in 2011 in which the residents of Abyei would decide either to remain part of the Sudanese South Kordofan region or to become part of the Bahr el Ghazal region of South Sudan.

Although an unofficial referendum was held in 2013, as of November 2025 no official referendum has been held.

The Dinka people (Dinka: Jiɛ̈ɛ̈ŋ) are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Mangalla-Bor to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile (two out of three provinces that were formerly part of southern Sudan), and the Abyei area of the Ngok Dinka in South Sudan.

They number around 4.5 million, according to the 2008 Sudan census, constituting about 40% of the population of that country and the largest ethnic group in South Sudan. The Dinka refer to themselves as Muonyjang (singular) and jieng (plural).