Central to the conflict over Sudan's fertile Abyei, the nomadic Arab Misseriya tribe says it fully backs Khartoum but denies it belongs to a militia deployed in the contested area.
On Saturday, northern troops and tanks overran the disputed district.
Southern officials have accused the pro-northern Misseriya, a cattle-herding people who traditionally move through Abyei each year with their animals for water and pasture, of entering Abyei in large numbers.
But that claim was dismissed as propaganda by a Misseriya tribal leader.
"It is nonsense, propaganda," said Sadiq Babo Nimer.
"There are no Misseriya tribesmen in Abyei for the simple reason that it is rainy season and Misseriya do not bring their cattle to Abyei before October," he said.
A staunch ally of the government in Khartoum, the Misseriya tribe migrates every year in the dry season towards the Bahr al-Arab river, which marks the southern border of Abyei, seeking pastures and fresh waters for their cattle.
The historic rivalry of these northern Arab nomads with the southern Dinka Ngok is the main source of the conflict in Abyei and raises the spectre of a new civil war between the Muslim north and the Christian south, six years after they signed a Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
"For years, the Misseriya have been targetted by the Dinka Ngok, but they kept quiet," said Sadiq Babo Nimer, who considers Khartoum's army has the "right to be in Abyei" as the region belonged to north Sudan.
After deadly clashes in 2008, the former southern rebels and the government in the north brought their dispute before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
The tribunal reduced the size of Abyei to the territory historically held by the Dinka Ngok and the remaining areas, where oil wells are concentrated, were granted to the north.
The agreement was accepted by the north and south but not by the Misseriya.
Abyei was due to vote on its future in January alongside a referendum on independence for the south but the decision was indefinitely postponed due to a dispute over the Misseriya's voting rights.
The north's seizure of Abyei, in the run-up to the planned international recognition of southern independence in July, has been condemned by major powers.
"Abyei is Sudanese land," said Abdel Rasul al-Nur Ismail, another elder.
"For the first time this year, the Dinka Ngok prevented us from bringing our cows to Abyei. They have no qualms about shooting at our cattle," said the sectogenarian.
He said as the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army had multiplied "its provocations to shake things up before July 9 ... the response by the Sudanese Armed Forces was legitimate, even if it came late," said the elder.
The Misseriya say the Dinka Ngok of Abyei, a minority group that wields considerable influence in the south's semi-autonomous government and army, is holding the south Sudanese hostage.
"Why should they sacrifice all that they have gained in the past few years for the sole interest of this extremist minority tribe?" said Nimer.
"The solution for Abyei rests in the hands of Salva Kiir (south Sudan's president) and Riek Machar (vice president)."
Nimer said he wants a "just and peaceful solution" but downplayed the role of the international community.
"They can say whatever they want, but we are in the right," said Ismail who travelled to Khartoum as part of a Misseriya delegation for talks with representatives of the United Nations Security Council.
