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STORY: UN / ABYEI
TRT: 2:39
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 22 OCTOBER 2020, NEW YORK CITY
FILE
1. Wide shot, UN Headquarters
22 OCTOBER 2020, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Split screen, Onanga-Anyanga and Lacroix in videoconference
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations:
“In a positive development, the Sudan and South Sudan have broached their intention to relaunch the political process, with senior officials from South Sudan travelling to Khartoum to meet with Sudanese authorities to discuss the final status of Abyei and border areas. However, despite this continued rapprochement between the Sudan and South Sudan, the peace process has made little progress in Abyei.”
5. Split screen, Onanga-Anyanga and Lacroix in videoconference
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations:
“The general security situation in Abyei during the reporting period remained rather volatile, with four attacks against UNISFA personnel being of particular concern, and four instances of intercommunal violence, including armed attacks on villages.”
7. Wide shot, Security Council
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Horn of Africa:
“The African Union has indicated its intention to convene the Joint Border Commission soon and has encouraged both countries to resume high-level meetings such as the Joint Security Commission (JSC) and the Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM).”
9. Wide shot, Security Council
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Horn of Africa:
“Authorities in both countries are confident that all outstanding bilateral issues between their countries, including Abyei and resolution of the situation in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile states, will benefit from the friendly relationships and the mutual trust they are now enjoying.”
11. Wide shot, Security Council
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Magdi Ahmed Mofadal Elnour, Deputy Permanent Representative of Sudan to the United Nations:
“The government of Sudan is committed to build on the new political dispensations in bilateral relations between the two brotherly neighbors to promote communal peaceful coexistence in the area and expedite the discussions to reach an understanding on the final status of Abyei.”
13. Wide shot, Security Council
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Magdi Ahmed Mofadal Elnour, Deputy Permanent Representative of Sudan to the United Nations:
“We call on the mission to further improve civilian protection, protect the area from incursion by unauthorized armed elements, ensure security and stand an equal distance from all communities in the area.”
15. Zoom out end of meeting
“Despite this continued rapprochement between the Sudan and South Sudan, the peace process has made little progress in Abyei,” the UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the Security Council on Thursday.
Briefing the Council via videolink, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said “the Sudan and South Sudan have broached their intention to relaunch the political process, with senior officials from South Sudan travelling to Khartoum to meet with Sudanese authorities to discuss the final status of Abyei and border areas.”
“However, despite this continued rapprochement between the Sudan and South Sudan, the peace process has made little progress in Abyei,” he said.
The only major developments at the local level, Lacroix reported, were the appointments by Juba and Khartoum of their respective Chief Administrators for Abyei area.
“The general security situation in Abyei,” said Lacroix, “remained rather volatile, with four attacks against UNISFA personnel being of particular concern, and four instances of intercommunal violence, including armed attacks on villages.”
Two of the attacks against the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) personnel occurred on 24 April, and the third attack occurred on 12 May, when two soldiers were fired upon while driving from the Kadugli base to Murta. In the fourth attack, an unknown armed group opened fire on an UNISFA convoy between Goli and Todach in Sector North, injuring three peacekeepers, one of them critically.
The instances of intercommunal violence include the incidents at Nainai and Kolom on 19 and 22 January 2020 respectively, as well as the incident in Mabok on 13 April 2020 and the Ngok Dinka attack on Ibrahim village on 8 August.
Also briefing the Council via videolink, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Horn of Africa reported that the “authorities in both countries are confident that all outstanding bilateral issues between their countries, including Abyei and resolution of the situation in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile states, will benefit from the friendly relationships and the mutual trust they are now enjoying.”
He also said that “the African Union has indicated its intention to convene the Joint Border Commission soon and has encouraged both countries to resume high-level meetings such as the Joint Security Commission (JSC) and the Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM).”
Sudanese Ambassador at the UN Magdi Ahmed Mofadal Elnour said that “the government of Sudan is committed to build on the new political dispensations in bilateral relations between the two brotherly neighbors to promote communal peaceful coexistence in the area and expedite the discussions to reach an understanding on the final status of Abyei,” and called upon the UNISFA “to further improve civilian protection, protect the area from incursion by unauthorized armed elements, ensure security and stand an equal distance from all communities in the area.”
