Africa

Thirteen people die in an attack in the Abyei region, in dispute between Sudan and South Sudan

4 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least thirteen people have died and five have been injured in a new attack in the Abyei region, in dispute between Sudan and South Sudan, as confirmed on Wednesday by the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

The mission has indicated that its forces have been deployed in the area and are carrying out patrols to prevent further incidents, while Abyei’s Information Minister, Ajak Deng Miyen, has noted that the situation is relatively calm.

Thus, Miyen has confirmed that the situation is normalizing after the intervention of UNISFA, as reported by the Radio Miraya station, owned and operated by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

UNISFA has detailed that “a combined armed group of Nuer and Twic Dinka launched an attack on the village of Rumamer, killing thirteen people and injuring five others, all of them Ngok Dinka, while 27 houses were burned down.”

In this sense, it has specified that the attack was carried out by some 200 armed men, although it has added that the situation “was effectively contained due to vigilance and rapid action,” according to the Radio Tamazuj station.

UNISFA has confirmed the opening of an investigation, while the head of the mission, Abu Syed Mohamod Bakir, has strongly condemned the attack and has warned that it could only raise tensions and cause a new outbreak of violence in Abyei.

Abyei’s status was suspended when South Sudan declared its independence in 2011 and it continues to be one of the main sources of conflict between the two countries due to its geostrategic importance and its energy reserves. The region is under UNISFA administration until the dispute is resolved.

In principle, the future of the region should have been determined according to a referendum stipulated in the historic peace agreements of 2005, which led to the independence of South Sudan, although the Dgok Dinka have made the plebiscite impossible by ruthlessly rejecting the participation of miseriya nomads in consultation.

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