Closely armed assailants attacked civilians within the villages of Malual Aleu, Banton, Awolnhom, Abathok, Majbong, Awal, and east of Rumamier, utilizing rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, reportedly over a land dispute.
No less than 37 individuals are reported to have been killed and several other others injured, together with girls and kids. Villages have been additionally set on hearth and 1000’s of cattle have been stolen.
“UNISFA strongly denounces the continued violence, which is escalating intercommunal tensions and threatening the delicate peace,” the mission stated in a statement on Monday.
UNISFA is making all efforts to revive calm, defend civilians, and interact with native authorities, group leaders, civil society, and different stakeholders to forestall retaliatory assaults, it added.
The mission has additionally elevated land and air patrols to discourage additional violence and defend civilians.
‘Blue helmets’ attacked
In accordance with UNISFA, peacekeepers serving with the mission have been additionally focused through the clashes.
An armoured personnel service got here below heavy hearth throughout an ambush, and UN ‘blue helmets’ at a base in Marial Achak have been fired upon earlier than the attackers have been repelled.
No fatalities have been reported.
Surge in clashes
The bloodshed got here per week after greater than 50 individuals, together with two UN peacekeepers, were killed in related assaults on civilians over land disputes.
UNISFA peacekeepers are at present sheltering and offering primary help to greater than 2,000 of these displaced in its bases.
UNISFA mandate
In June 2011, the Security Councilauthorized the deployment of UN peacekeepers to the disputed Abyei space, which straddles Sudan and South Sudan and claimed by each.
The Council’s motion got here in response to rampant violence and inhabitants displacement within the area as South Sudan was making ready to formally declare independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011, culminating the 2005 peace accord.
Useful resource-rich Abyei had witnessed scores of lethal clashes that drove over 100,000 individuals from their properties within the weeks earlier than the Safety Council resolution.
