The co-chair of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee for the Government of Sudan has denied involvement in the assassination of Chief Kuol Deng Kuol.

Al-Khair Al-Fahim is a prominent member of the National Congress Party and a member of the Misseriya tribe. Speaking in an interview with Radio Tamazuj yesterday, he denied that he was responsible for the killing.

Kuol Deng Kuol was killed Saturday in Abyei by gunmen belonging to the neighboring Misseriya Arab tribe. The chief was traveling with other officials and tribal leaders of the Ngok Dinka under escort by a convoy of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), the Ethiopian peacekeeping force in Abyei.

The Misseriya leader speaking from Khartoum denied the accusations made by the Abyei community in Sudan of being behind the assassination of the paramount chief Kuol Deng Kuol. He was replying specifically to an accusation by a prominent Ngok Dinka leader in Khartoum, Jufur Dawalbeit, who is also a local NCP official.

On the Tuesday morning broadcast of Radio Tamazuj the Ngok Dinka leader in Khartoum was quoted as saying “We hold the head of the Abyei committee al-Khair al-Fahim responsible for the assassination of Kuol (Deng).”

“This is not true and Jufur did not have a relationship better than I did with my brother Kuol. Jufur did not have a better relationship than I did personally with my brother Kuol,” the Misseriya leader stressed in a strongly worded denial.

Additionally, he slammed Jufur saying that there were some personal differences between him and the rest of the Abyei community.

Al-Khair described the late Kuol as a symbol of peace noting that they were schoolmates at the secondary level studies. He pointed out that his murder has been condemned locally, regionally and internationally, explaining that the two presidents of South Sudan and Sudan clearly decided to overcome the challenge and commit themselves fully to implementation of the agreed upon treaties including oil and the Abyei file.