42 killed in fresh communal clashes near South Sudan

At least 42 people were killed, including a UN peacekeeper, during clashes last week in the Abyei Administrative Area between armed youth of the Twic community of neighbouring Warrap state and Ngok Dinka of Abyei, officials confirmed. Rou Manyiel Rou, the Secretary General of Abyei Special Administrative Area, said on Sunday that the attacks in Nyinkuac, Majbong, and Khadian areas by armed youth from the Twic community in collaboration with Nuer youth loyal to their spiritual leader Gai Machiek also left 35 people wounded, Xinhua news agency reported. “As we face these barbaric coordinated attacks, the government of Abyei Special Administrative Area condemns in the strongest terms possible the attempt by Twic and their allied armed youth to defy the presidential order issued recently by President Salva Kiir to end the conflict between Ngok Dinka and Twic communities,” Manyiel told Xinhua in an interview. President Kiir’s order issued on January 18 called on security forces to expel from Warrap state the Nuer spiritual leader Gai Machiek and his loyal Nuer youth in a bid to resolve the conflict between Ngok Dinka and the Twic communities. The order also called on security forces to summon and arrest politicians from both warring communities who appeared to incite violence between the two communities. Manyiel called for the speedy deployment of neutral security forces along the border between Twic County and the Abyei Administrative Area. Simon Aguek Chan, the Commissioner of Twic County of Warrap state, said that their youth were not involved in the violence in the Abyei Administrative Area. Aguek added that the fighting was between armed Nuer youth staying within Abyei and the local Ngok Dinka youth. “The Nuer armed youth who fought with Abyei youth on Saturday are the ones who have been killing people in Twic, they have heavy machine guns and I believe they are from organised forces because the weapons they have are not supposed to be for civilians,” he said.  (IANS)

Also Read: Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan rules out reconciliation with paramilitary forces

Also Watch: