An “unprecedented” conflict between Sudan’s army and rival paramilitaries is now in its seventh month drawing closer to South Sudan and the disputed region of Abyei, the UN special envoy for the Horn of Africa warned on Monday.
Hanna Serwaa Tetteh pointed to the recent seizure by the paramilitary Rapid Support Force of an airport and oil field in Belila, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) southwest of the capital of Sudan’s West Kordofan State.
He told the UN Security Council that the conflict “has seriously affected bilateral relations between Sudan and South Sudan, with significant humanitarian, security, economic and political implications that are of deep concern among South Sudan’s political leadership.”
Sudan was thrown into chaos in mid-April when simmering tensions between the army and the RSF exploded into open warfare in the capital, Khartoum, and other areas across the East African country.
An “unprecedented” conflict between the Sudanese army and rival paramilitary forces is edging closer to the Abyei region, the UN special envoy for the Horn of Africa warned on Monday. Reuters
More than 9,000 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Locations & Events Data project, which tracks Sudan’s war.
And the fighting has prompted more than 4.5 million people to flee their homes elsewhere inside Sudan and more than 1.2 million to seek refuge in neighboring countries, the UN said.
Sudan plunged into turmoil after its top military figure, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, led a coup in October 2021 that overturned a short-lived democratic transition following three decades of autocratic rule by Omar al-Bashir.
Sudan was thrown into chaos in mid-April when tensions between the army and the RSF erupted into open warfare in the capital, Khartoum. AFP/Getty Images
Since mid-April, his army has been fighting the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Both sides have been participating in talks aimed at ending the conflict in the coastal city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the United States, since late October.
But the battle continues.
The Security Council meeting focused on UN peacekeeping forces in the oil-rich region of Abyei, whose status was unresolved after South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in 2011.
The majority of the Ngok Dinka people in the region are in favor of South Sudan, while the Misseriya nomads who come to Abyei in search of pasture for their livestock are in favor of Sudan.
With the RSF seizure of Belila, Tetteh said, the military confrontation between the two Sudanese sides “is getting closer to the border with Abyei and South Sudan.”
“This military development is likely to have an adverse effect on the social fabric of Abyei and the already fragile coexistence between Misseriya and Ngok Dinka,” he said.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the council that the outbreak of the Sudanese conflict “disrupts the encouraging signs of dialogue between Sudan and South Sudan witnessed in early 2023.”
He said it had delayed “the political process regarding the final status of Abyei and the border issue.”
More than 9,000 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Locations & Events Data project, and more than 4.5 million people have fled their homes. AP
Tetteh echoed Lacroix, saying that “there is no appetite from the main leaders of Sudan and South Sudan to raise the status of Abyei.”
He said community representatives in Abyei were well aware of the “bad consequences” of the conflict on the resumption of negotiations in the region and expressed the need to keep the Abyei dispute on the agenda of the UN and the African Union.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
