Urgent investigation needed into Abyei incident

Majok/ photo credit: AFP

According to yesterday’s news, a top Dinka tribal chief, an Ethiopian peacekeeper, as well as many others were killed during a “stand-off “between a group of Misseriya and UN peacekeepers in the Abyei region.

Leaders of both Dinka and Misseriya tribes confirmed to the media that Kual Deng Majok, supreme chief of the Ngok Dinka in Abyei had been killed on Saturday.

The UN said one peacekeeper from its Interim Security Force in Abyei (UNISFA) was killed and two seriously wounded "in an attack by a Misseriya assailant on a UNISFA convoy".

"A group of Misseriya stopped the convoy and started negotiations. Then a clash happened when a [UN] soldier shot one of the Misseriya who was readying his weapon," an unnamed chief told AFP.

There were also reports of many casualties," including several dead Misseriya.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the governments of Sudan and South Sudan and the Ngok Dinka and Misseriya communities to remain calm and avoid any escalation of this unfortunate event, a statement from his spokesperson said late Saturday, condemning the killings.

Until the penning of this article, no official statement or comment was issued by the government, for which no amount of condemnation nor calls for restraint would be enough to prevent a potential escalation, which could negatively impact on its recently improved relations with South Sudan, not to mention the upcoming mid-May visit by president Salva Kiir to witness delivery of the first oil shipment to international markets from Port-Sudan.

 To add to the seriousness of the situation, Kiir has recently emphasized that the fate of Abyei remains his government’s top priority of post-secession issues still to be settled with the government of Sudan.

What is urgently required at this point is to conduct an immediate investigation on the incident, and bring the perpetrators to justice to contain the situation before it gets out of control.

Abyei is considered one of the key territorial disputes between Sudan and South Sudan, left unresolved when the latter seceded.

Such an incident can only inflame tensions in the area whose status has not been decided despite steps the two countries have taken since March to normalize relations, after months of intermittent clashes along their un-demarcated frontier.