The “unprecedented” conflict between Sudan’s army and a rival paramilitary force now in its seventh month is getting closer to South Sudan and the disputed Abyei region, UN Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Hanna Serwaa Tetteh warned on Monday.
Tetteh said that the paramilitary Rapid Support Force had seized an airport and oil field in Belila, about 55km southwest of the capital of Sudan’s West Kordofan State.
The conflict “is profoundly affecting bilateral relations between Sudan and South Sudan, with significant humanitarian, security, economic and political consequences that are a matter of deep concern among the South Sudanese political leadership,” she told the UN Security Council.
Photo: Reuters
Sudan was plunged into chaos in the middle of April, when tensions between the military and the Rapid Support Force exploded into open warfare in the capital, Khartoum, and other areas across the east African nation.
More than 9,000 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, which tracks Sudan’s war.
The fighting has driven more than 4.5 million people to flee their homes to other places inside Sudan and more than 1.2 million to seek refuge in neighboring countries, UN data showed.
Sudan plunged into turmoil after its leading military figure, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, led a coup in October 2021 that upended a short-run democratic transition following three decades of rule by Omar al-Bashir.
Since April, his troops have been fighting the Rapid Support Force, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Both sides have been taking part in talks aimed at ending the conflict in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, brokered by Saudi Arabia and the US, since late last month.
However, the fighting has continued.
The Security Council meeting focused on the UN peacekeeping force in the oil-rich Abyei region, whose status was unresolved after South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011.
The region’s majority Ngok Dinka people favor South Sudan, while the Misseriya nomads who travel to Abyei to find pasture for their cattle favor Sudan.
With the Rapid Support Force’s seizures in Belila, the military confrontation between Sudan’s two sides “is getting closer to the border with Abyei and South Sudan,” Tetteh said.
“These military developments are likely to have adverse consequences on Abyei’s social fabric and the already fragile coexistence between the Misseriya and the Ngok Dinka,” she said.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the council that the outbreak of the Sudan conflict “interrupted the encouraging signs of dialogue between the Sudan and South Sudan witnessed earlier in 2023.”
It had put on hold “the political process with regard to the final status of Abyei and border issues,” Lacroix said.
Tetteh echoed Lacroix, saying that “there is no appetite from key Sudanese and South Sudanese leaders to raise the status of Abyei.”
Representatives of the communities in Abyei are very aware of the conflict’s “adverse consequences” on the resumption of talks on the region, and expressed the need to keep the Abyei dispute on the UN and African Union agendas, she said.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
RSS