Südsudan/Sudan (Abyei)

Sudan’s efforts to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, are delaying the deployment of fresh United Nations police units in Abyei and the border regions between Sudan and South Sudan, the UN’s peacekeeping chief told the Security Council on Tuesday.

Traditional leadership of the Ngok Dinka and Misseriya failed to strike a deal on peaceful coexistence but reiterated their commitment to peace and security in Abyei. The United Nations’ Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) facilitated two meetings between the Ngok Dinka and Misseriya traditional leaders at Diffra on 16 March and 9 April to discuss ways to end intercommunal tensions and enable save corridors for their cattle to graze south to Bahr al-Arab or Kiir River basin.

In a report to the UN Security Council, the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) said it discussed with the two countries a plan to establish checkpoints to search for weapons and ammunition and control the reported movements of armed elements within the Abyei Area.

Salva Kiir tells MEE that last week's Kolom massacre was not the first time that UN forces have failed to protect civilians.

Nearly five thousand internally displaced people have moved to Abyei town following a brutal attack by Misseriya armed men on a Dinka Ngok village.

The United Nations is condemning the deadly attack on a village in the disputed oil-rich area of Abyei between Sudan and South Sudan Wednesday. It is calling for calm in the wake of the attack by armed gunmen, which left dozens dead and scores injured. Armed gunmen reportedly killed 32 people, injured 25 and went on a rampage, burning homes and causing other devastation in the Dinka village of Kolom.

Wednesday’s attack unfolded at 7 a.m. local time, said Kuol Alor Kuol, head of the Abyei administration, when the tribesmen stormed the Dinka village of Kolom near Abyei town and set some of its dwellings ablaze.

The Security Council today decided to extend the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) until 15 May 2020, specifying “measurable progress” in border issues needed from Sudan and South Sudan before that date.

Sudan and neighbouring South Sudan “have never been closer” to reaching a sustainable peace with each other, and their own internal armed opposition groups, the head of UN peacekeeping told the Security Council on Thursday. The meeting was focused on the disputed, arid, oil-rich border territory of Abyei, where the UN Interim Security Force, UNISFA, has helped to monitor an uneasy peace without formal governance, and protect civilians, since 2011, in the weeks before South Sudan became independent from its northern neighbour.