JUBA, South Sudan
A regional official says gunmen attacked villagers in the oil-rich region of Abyei claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan. At least 52 people were killed, including a U.N. peacekeeper, and 64 wounded.
The Abyei region is an area of
10,546 km² on the border between South Sudan and Sudan that has been accorded
"special administrative status" by the 2004 Protocol on the
Resolution of the Abyei Conflict in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that
ended the Second Sudanese Civil War.
The motive for the attack
Saturday evening was not immediately clear but it was suspected to revolve
around a land dispute, Bulis Koch, Abyei information minister, told The
Associated Press in a telephone interview from Abyei.
Deadly ethnic violence has
been common in the region, where Twic Dinka tribal members from neighboring
Warrap State are locked in a land dispute with Ngok Dinka from Abyei over the
Aneet area, located at the border.
The attackers in Saturday’s
violence were armed youth from the Nuer tribe who migrated to Warrap state last
year because of flooding in their areas, Koch said.
In a statement, the United
Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) condemned the violence that
killed the peacekeeper.
UNIFSA confirmed intercommunal
clashes took place in the Nyinkuac, Majbong and Khadian areas leading to
casualties and the evacuation of civilians to UNISFA bases.
“The UNISFA base in Agok came
under attack by an armed group. The mission repelled the attack, but tragically
a Ghanaian peacekeeper was killed,” the statement said.
Sudan and South Sudan have
disagreed over control of the Abyei region since a 2005 peace deal ended
decades of civil war between Sudan’s north and south. Both Sudan and South
Sudan claim ownership of Abyei, whose status was unresolved after South Sudan became
independent from Sudan in 2011.
The region’s majority Ngok
Dinka people favor South Sudan, while the Misseriya nomads who come to Abyei to
find pasture for their cattle favor Sudan. Currently, the region is under the
control of South Sudan.
An African Union panel
proposed a referendum for Abyei but there was disagreement over who could vote.
Currently, the region is under the control of South Sudan.
Inter-communal and cross-border clashes have escalated since South Sudan deployed its troops to Abyei in March.
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