In the latest surge of violence along the contested border region between Sudan and South Sudan, more than 50 individuals, including women and children, lost their lives in a series of attacks on Saturday. The assaults were carried out by armed youth from South Sudan’s Warrap State into the neighboring Abyei region, marking the deadliest incident since 2021 linked to an ongoing boundary dispute.
Abyei, a resource-rich area, is jointly administered by both South Sudan and Sudan, both of whom assert claims to the territory. Bulis Koch, the Information Minister for Abyei, reported the grim toll, stating that 52 people, including women, children, and police officers, were killed during the attacks, with an additional 64 individuals sustaining injuries.
“Because of the current dire security situation at hand, which has created fears and panic, we have imposed a curfew,” Koch revealed in a statement to Reuters. Meanwhile, a Ghanaian peacekeeper from the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) lost his life when the base in Agok town was attacked amid the violence.
As a consequence of the attacks, hundreds of displaced civilians sought refuge at a UNISFA base, highlighting the urgent need for intervention and protection for the vulnerable population caught in the crossfire. William Wol, the Information Minister for Warrap State, pledged to conduct a joint investigation with the Abyei administration to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the deadly clashes.
The conflict in Abyei has been exacerbated by repeated clashes between rival factions of the Dinka ethnic group, primarily concerning the location of the administrative boundary, a source of significant tax revenues. According to Koch, Dinka youth from Warrap and forces led by a rebel leader from the Nuer ethnic group orchestrated the attacks against both Dinkas and Nuers in Abyei.
This incident adds to the persistent instability in the region, where routine clashes among various armed groups have continued since the civil war in South Sudan, which took place predominantly along ethnic lines between Dinkas and Nuers, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths from 2013 to 2018. The recent violence in Abyei follows clashes in November that claimed the lives of at least 32 people, underlining the urgent need for a comprehensive and lasting resolution to the longstanding tensions in the region.