January 25th 2020 (Nyamilepedia) – The South Sudan General Students’ Union (SSGSU) has condemned – in a statement – this week’s Abyei attack which killed around 32 people and injured around 24 others.
This week, Arab militiamen attacked a village in the disputed region of Abyei killing 32 people. The survivors of the attack accused the UN forces stationed in the contested region of failing to protect them during the attack.
“With the heartbreaking news coming from Abyei on the killing of over 30 innocent civilians and injuring of 24 people in addition to destruction that occurred yesterday 22 January, 2020, the South Sudan General Students’ Union wants to categorically condemn in the strongest terms possible such criminal acts committed by Misseriya militias militarily and politically backed by Khartoum,” the statement seen by Nyamilepedia partly reads.
“It is so saddening to see vulnerable children and women being targeted and burnt to death by merciless culprits with impunity. As usual, this particular terrible incident is not the first of its kind because there have been similar atrocities previously but the Sudanese government has never been in position to account the perpetrators and bring them to book.
Therefore, the government of the Republic of South Sudan needs to seriously take into consideration that Abyei region is protected by SSPDF in order for the citizens to enjoy peace and stability. The Union also appeals to the international community to pressurize the Sudanese authorities to bring the killers for accountability.
“The United Nation Interim Security Forces for Abyei (UNISFA), which was mandated to secure the area, has totally failed many times to execute their duties of protecting unarmed civil population within Abyei territory and so, the UNISFA must choose either to carry out the main mandate or exit immediately.
“Finally, the United Nations Security Council must pass a resolution that will resolve the final status of Abyei of Ngok Dinka and to confirm the outcome of October, 2013 Referendum in which they voted to be part and parcel of the Republic of South Sudan.”
