South Sudan peace activist condemns attack on Abyei, urges talk on final status of disputed territory

JUBA – A South Sudan peace activist has condemned this morning’s fighting in which armed men believed to have come from neighboring Warrap State launched multiple attacks targeting a number of areas in southern parts of the disputed Abyei area.

The attacks, several eyewitnesses told Sudans Post this morning, were launched by armed youth from Warrap and targeted southern Abyei areas of Madiing, Mabuony, Juoljok and Agok Airstrip Estate inside Aneet town.

The Abyei government spokesman Honorable Ajak Deng Mayen confirmed the attack but said they were counting losses and casualties, though many have suggested that dozens of people have been killed in the incident.

Speaking to Sudans Post this morning, peace activist and author Akol Miyen Kuol condemned the attacks and said they are defiance for directives given by President Salva Kiir Mayardit to resolve the dispute between the Ngok and Twic Dinka Communities.

“We condemn these subsequent attacks by armed men from Warrap State, South Sudan, on the areas of the Nine Ngok Dinka Chiefdoms of Abyei in southern part of Abyei Region,” he said from the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

“Today’s attacks by the armed men from Warrap State represent a direct defiance to the recent decision by President Gen Salva Kiir Mayardit in which he called for the cessation of hostilities between the two communities of Twic of Warrap State and the Ngok Dinka of Abyei,” he added.

“Furthermore, these attacks by the armed men from Warrap State are a defiance to President Kiir’s decision that calls for settling the dispute between the two communities through peaceful means and dialogue,” he continued.

Kuol further called on President Salva Kiir and President of Sudan Transitional Sovereign Council General Abdelfattah el Burhan to resume talks on the final status of Abyei so that the issue of the general insecurity in the Ngok Dinka territory is resolved for good.

“Hence, in order to avoid further attacks and the escalation of the situation, I take this opportunity and reiterate my call on the Head of the Sudan Transitional Council General Abd-al-Fattah al-Burhan and President of South Sudan Gen Salva Kiir Mayardit to immediately resume talks on the final status of Abyei,” he said.

“This issue must be settled now once and for all as the Nine Ngok Dinka Chiefdoms cannot wait indefinitely for the final status of their region. The time for settling the final status of Abyei is now,” he added.