Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUN / ABYEI
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: UN / ABYEI
TRT: 03:15
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 21 APRIL 2022, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
21 APRIL 2022, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council,
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, United Nations:
“The humanitarian situation in the Abyei area has deteriorated since I last briefed this Council. My humanitarian colleagues went from servicing 103,000 vulnerable people during the last reporting period to a stunning 240,000 currently. This was largely due to the violence between Twic Dinka and Ngok Dinka communities near Agok in February and March, when 26 people were killed and many more injured. It is also very concerning that two humanitarian workers lost their lives as a result of those events.”
4. Med shot, Council President
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, United Nations:
“In the past two months alone, we saw three direct attacks on UNISFA patrols, resulting in the injury of one peacekeeper, one damaged vehicle and one attack – just last week – involved a rocket-propelled grenade. Such direct, serious, violence against the United Nations peacekeepers must end immediately. I call on the relevant authorities, consistent with their obligations under the status-of-forces-agreement, to investigate these incidents as a matter of priority.”
6. Wide shot, Council dais
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, United Nations:
“It was disappointing that the parties could not, at the last minute, agree on a number of key points, which resulted in the cancelation of the intercommunal dialogue event that UNISFA had organized in Entebbe.”
8. Wide shot, Council
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Akuei Bona Malwal, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, South Sudan:
“This report comes at a time when the situation in Abyei is engulfed with an uncertain security situation. More especially from perpetual attacks from Ayera Misseriya, who, over the last year continuously attacked, killed, displayed and looted the property of Ngok Dinka.”
11. Wide shot, Council
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ammar Mohammed Mahmoud Mohammed, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Sudan:
“The Sudan calls for easing of tensions in the area and not to take any unilateral measures that could threaten or jeopardize the stability of the operation of UNISFA. We stress that Abyei must be a region that is free of any armed presence.”
13. Wide shot, Council
Speaking by videoconference, the Head of UN Peacekeeping Jean-Pierre Lacroix today (21 Apr) told a Security Council open meeting on Abyei that the humanitarian situation has deteriorated in the region due to intracommunal violence.
Lacroix said humanitarians in Abyei “went from servicing 103,000 vulnerable people during the last reporting period to a stunning 240,000 currently.”
He said this “was largely due to the violence between Twic Dinka and Ngok Dinka communities near Agok in February and March, when 26 people were killed and many more injured,” and expressed concern that “two humanitarian workers lost their lives as a result of those events.”
The peacekeeping chief said, “in the past two months alone, we saw three direct attacks on UNISFA patrols, resulting in the injury of one peacekeeper, one damaged vehicle and one attack – just last week – involved a rocket-propelled grenade” and stressed that “such direct, serious, violence against the United Nations peacekeepers must end immediately.”
He called on relevant authorities, “to investigate these incidents as a matter of priority.”
The UN Mission, Lacroix told the Council, has been working with the Governments of Sudan and South Sudan, as well as community leaders, to come to an agreement on this dry season’s migration route.
He said it was “disappointing that the parties could not, at the last minute, agree on a number of key points, which resulted in the cancelation of the intercommunal dialogue event that UNISFA had organized in Entebbe.”
Lacroix briefed on the work of UNISFA, the UN Interim Security Force in the oil-rich border area, urging the Council to extend its mandate for another six months, through 15 October.
UNISFA has supported dialogue between the nomadic Misseriya and pastoral Ngok Dinka communities, including to address incidents of violence that occurred in recent months.
In his briefing to the Council, South Sudan’s Ambassador Akuei Bona Malwal said, “this report comes at a time when the situation in Abyei is engulfed with an uncertain security situation. More especially from perpetual attacks from Ayera Misseriya, who, over the last year continuously attacked, killed, displayed and looted the property of Ngok Dinka.”
For his part Sudan’s representative Ammar Mohammed Mahmoud Mohammed said, “the Sudan calls for easing of tensions in the area and not to take any unilateral measures that could threaten or jeopardize the stability of the operation of UNISFA. We stress that Abyei must be a region that is free of any armed presence.”
The Security Council, by its resolution 1990 of 27 June 2011, responded to the urgent situation in Sudan’s Abyei region by establishing the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA). The Security Council was deeply concerned by the violence, escalating tensions and population displacement.
UNISFA’s establishment came after the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) reached an agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to demilitarize Abyei and let Ethiopian troops to monitor the area.
