Abyei welcomes renewal of UNISFA mandate
Some members of the Abyei Administrative Area community living in Juba have welcomed the UN Security Council’s decision to extend the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Abyei or UNISFA.
On Wednesday last week, the United Nations Security Council renewed the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei or the UNISFA mandate for another six months until May 15, 2022.
The 15-member Security Council adopted Resolution 2609 unanimously. The Council also urged the governments of Sudan and South Sudan to take all necessary steps to ensure that the Abyei administrative area is effectively demilitarized.
Abyei is the disputed area straddling the Sudan-South Sudan border.
The resolution reduces the authorized troop ceiling to 3,250 until May 15 next year, and maintains the authorized ceiling at 640 police personnel, including 148 individual officers and three formed units.
Bagaat Makuac, a paramount chief of the Ngok Dinka community in the Abyei Administrative Area, says he is glad the UNISFA mandate has been renewed but says he’s concerned that despite UNISFA’s formation in 2016, atrocities have continued to occur in the area.
Makuach says the forces should figure out better ways of protecting civilians from attacks by armed groups.
“We don’t want the violation of this mandate because UNISFA used to say that any armed group should [be] redeployed outside the box, but they are still existing, the atrocities are still committed, and then killing is happening on the innocent civilians, children have been abducted, women have been raped.”
“All these harassments used to happen in the existence of these forces which is UNISFA, with their mandate to protect civilians, but we do say that if there is a mechanism or any way for UNISFA to improve its mandate and deployment of its forces to prevent any activities such as I have mentioned, that will be better.”
Makuach wonders how long people in the Abyei Administrative Area will live under the protection of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Abyei. He is urging the UN Security Council to come up with better ways to stabilize the Abyei area and make it part of one country.
“The crucial thing for the people of Abyei is that the United Nations Security Council should focus on the finding [of] the settlement or the final solution for the status of Abyei because UNISFA will not stay forever, so the concern of the people of Abyei is just finding the exit way forward for the current situation in which the people of Abyei are just suffering right now, instead of renewing the mandate of UNISFA from time to time, and not focusing on the grassroots problems.” Makuach says.
The people of Abyei held a community referendum in 2013 and Makuach says the South Sudan Transitional National Legislative Assembly should endorse the outcome of that referendum in which residents of the disputed region of Abyei voted overwhelmingly to join South Sudan in the unofficial referendum.
Makuach says if the South Sudan government does not consider that option, then the governments of Sudan and South Sudan should find the political will to declare which country Abyei belongs to.
Acting Head of Mission and Force Commander, Maj. General Kefyalew Amde Tessema 19 November, led a delegation of UNISFA senior officials to condole with Paramount Chief for Ngok Dinka, Bulabek Deng Kuol and his family, following the untimely death of his mother.
Reech Ador, a youth from Abyei Administrative area also welcomes the renewal of the UNISFA mandate, saying he believes the forces will continue to provide protection to ordinary people.
“It is okay that United Nations continue to renew the mandate of the forces in Abyei so that It continues to provide protection for the civilians in Abyei but that is not actually the intention of the peace of Abyei, insecurity wise it is okay for the forces to be in Abyei so that they can guarantee safety of the civilians in Abyei, but that does not mean the people of Abyei wanted to remain in the same status quo.”
Ador says the UNISFA forces have not been able to provide adequate protection to civilians living in Abyei.
“They should at least deploy their forces where the civilians are. There are people who wanted to go back to their places so that they resettle, they recover their livelihood and they wanted to be protected, they wanted to be provided with full security so that they enjoy, and now the mandate is renewed, we had wanted the forces to focus more specifically on providing a clear and absolute protection to the people in the PCA box.”
Ador is calling on the international community, the UN Security Council, the TROIKA countries of the U-S, Britain and Norway as well as the African Union to exert more pressure on Sudan and South Sudan to reach a consensus and resolve the final status of the Abyei region.
Recent Comments