“With the battle in Sudan, the situations will not be conducive for talks on the ultimate standing of Abyei. The progress that was made [earlier this year] sadly was not one thing that we may construct upon,” Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, Particular Envoy of the Secretary-Normal for Horn of Africa, informed ambassadors.
“Key Sudanese and South Sudanese leaders haven’t expressed the need to have interaction on these matters,” she added.
The Abyei area, which is wealthy in oil sources, straddles the border between Sudan and South Sudan, and is claimed by each side. The Security Council first approved a peacekeeping drive there in June 2011, a couple of weeks earlier than South Sudan grew to become the world’s youngest impartial nation.
Ms. Tetteh famous that the Speedy Assist Forces (RSF), which is combating the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Sudan, is now getting nearer to Abyei, controlling elements of the border with South Sudan.
However, representatives of the Abyei communities, nicely conscious of the adversarial penalties of the combating on the prospect of resuming talks, expressed the necessity to preserve the Abyei difficulty on the UN and African Union’s agenda, she added.
Elevated displacements in Abyei
Additionally briefing, Underneath-Secretary-Normal for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, stated the Sudan disaster compounds the challenges in Abyei, together with an inflow of civilians fleeing the combating.
“The UN Mission [there] has additionally seen elevated weapons circulation in Abyei, a scenario which will have been exacerbated by the scenario within the Sudan,” he informed ambassadors.
“The battle has additionally created financial hardship for the inhabitants of Abyei because the circulate of fundamental items and commodities, lots of which got here from the north, has been disrupted.”
The UN Interim Safety Pressure for Abyei (UNISFA) has helped prolong humanitarian assist to an estimated 220,000 folks within the central and southern elements of Abyei, together with these displaced in intercommunal clashes and people fleeing the combating within the Sudan.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Underneath-Secretary-Normal for Peace Operations, briefs members the Safety Council.
New actuality for Mission
Mr. Lacroix stated UNISFA has needed to regulate its deployment routes and provide preparations “consistent with the brand new actuality”.
Over the previous six months, UNISFA personnel have been attacked on three events, resulting in some accidents, he added, noting that investigations into the assaults are ongoing.
The combating has additionally created challenges for the UNIFSA-supported Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JBVMM), which ensures peace within the demilitarized zone alongside the border between Sudan and South Sudan, Mr. Lacroix stated.
“Whereas aerial patrolling has been halted on account of airspace restrictions, JBVMM personnel stay in place and floor monitoring within the border space continues.”
Persevering with problem
The presence of roughly 200 South Sudan Folks’s Defence Pressure and South Sudan Nationwide Police Service personnel in southern Abyei, and an estimated 60 Sudanese law enforcement officials defending oil property in northern Abyei, pose a unbroken problem for the UNISFA, Mr. Lacroix stated.
“These presences, that are in contradiction with the Mission’s mandate and the demilitarized and weapons-free standing of Abyei, have additionally resulted in restrictions on UNISFA’s freedom of motion,” he stated, calling on authorities to withdraw their personnel.
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