Dozens killed in as violence rocks disputed Sudan-South Sudan border area

According to reports, attacks along South Sudan’s border with Sudan resulted in the deaths of over 50 individuals, including women, children, and two U.N. peacekeepers. This incident is the bloodiest in a string of border-related incidents that have occurred since 2021.

According to Bulis Koch, the communications minister for Abyei, on Monday, the raids into the neighboring Abyei region on Saturday were carried out by armed young men from South Sudan’s Warrap State.

Both Sudan and South Sudan jointly govern the oil-rich region of Abyei, and both countries have claimed ownership of it.

Around 52 locals, including women, children, and police officers, were slain in the attacks on Saturday, according to Koch. Another 64 people suffered injuries.

“Because of the current dire security situation at hand, which has created fears and panic, we have imposed a curfew,” he was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.

UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) announced on Sunday that amid the fighting, a Ghanaian peacekeeper from the force was slain when an attack occurred on its base in the town of Agok.

A day later, UNISFA reported on Monday that additional violence had resulted in the death of a second Pakistani peacekeeper and the injuries of four of his colleagues as well as a civilian while they were escorting civilians from a UNISFA base to a hospital. It provided no other information.

Koch reported that a UNISFA base was the destination of hundreds of displaced civilians.

The communications minister for Warrap State, William Wol, announced that his administration will work with the Abyei administration to launch an investigation.

The attacks against Dinkas and Nuers in Abyei, according to Koch, were carried out by young Dinka males from Warrap and the soldiers of a rebel leader from the Nuer ethnic group.

Between 2013 and 2018, hundreds of thousands of people died in South Sudan’s civil war, which broke out shortly after the nation gained independence from Sudan and was mostly fought along ethnic lines between the Dinkas and Nuers.

Since then, numerous civilians have been killed and displaced by regular conflicts between a patchwork of armed groups. In November, at least 32 individuals were killed in fighting in Abyei.