Africa: 'We Are Women Like You' - UN Honours Peacekeepers for Work in Gender Empowerment: [UN News] In early summer 2024, Squadron Leader Sharon Mwinsote Syme of Ghana ventured into sector North of Abyei, a disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan where she was deployed as a military gender advocate with the UN Interim Security Force in Abyei (UNISFA). http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TL2kk4 #GenderEquality #WomenEmpowerment #Peacekeepers #UNWomen #Abyei

Meanwhile #SouthSudan had had to stop #oil production and exports through #Sudan for a year, which are vital to its economy. A recent South Sudanese recognition of the 2013 referendum in #Abyei, making the region part of the South, likely will strain relations further.

Meanwhile, cattle raids are prevalent in Unity and Warrap states (north), clashes in #Abyei have been dubbed a “#genocide” by activists, intercommunal violence remains unchecked in the Greater Pibor area (east).

Further violence in Tambura (west) between Balanda (backed by #SPLMIO) and Azande community (backed by #SouthSudan People’s Defence Forces, #SSPDF) has been narrowly avoided by #UN and SSPDF reinforcements. The Tambura conflict lasts since 2021 and has displaced 50,000 people.

#TIL of #Abyei, a condominium between #Sudan and #SouthSudan!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abyei

#TodayILearned #Africa

In Babanusa, most of the city is at the hands of the #RSF since the end of January. The #SAF garrison is but besieged, and still holds the key to West #Kordofan's capital El Fulah and the wider region, including #Abyei. Heavy artillery fire has been exchanged for the past 2 weeks, supplemented by SAF airstrikes.

https://sudanwarmonitor.com/p/babanusa-artillery-battle

#Sudan #SouthSudan

Much remains to be done, and will be all the harder because of the multiple crisis now threatening the country’s stability, including the civil war in neighbouring #Sudan, ethnic violence in #Abyei and damage to a crucial pipeline on Sudanese territory.

#SouthSudan

Reste à savoir si le #SLM-MM et les #FAS ont les moyens d'effectuer "une sortie" à El Fasher, en coordination avec les combats actuels à Omdurman et à Bahri / Khartoum-Nord.
Les autres incertitudes immédiates, de grande importance, sont l'allégeance des Misseriya du #Kordofan de l'ouest et de l'#Abyei, suite à la prise de contrôle par les #FSR de Babanusa, et une éventuelle offensive d'éléments variés sous la direction du nr 2 du régime Malik Agar en direction d'Al Jazirah.

#Soudan

Ni la situation fragile de Burhan en interne, bousculé par les islamistes, menacé d'un coup d'État, affaibli par le désastre de Wad Madani, ni les perspectives favorables aux #FSR (malgré la chute de #Khartoum Nord) dans le #Kordofan, l'#Abyei, le Nil blanc et le #Sennar, ni le peu d'entrain des puissances étrangères participantes à réduire leur soutien ou des puissances mondiales à s'interposer ne laisse présager le moindre répit.

Northern #Abyei is likewise inhabited by the Misseriya, who have regularly attacked the Dinka in the South in spite of #UNISFA.

The #RSF, after gaining control of Babanusa (West #Kordofan), may now rejoin #Abyei and the oilfield of Deffra (North). They are allied to General Buay (SSPM/A) who has been implicated in the conflict against Ngoc Dinka of Southern Abyei. It will also depend on who the Misseriya tribes will stand for in the war now raging in West Kordofan. Their efforts had until the battle of Babanusa focused on staying on the sidelines.

In a statement to Sudans Post, Edmund Yakani called for these attacks to be labelled as crimes against humanity and acts of #genocide (https://www.sudanspost.com/south-sudan-activist-says-genocide-taking-place-in-abyei/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=south-sudan-activist-says-genocide-taking-place-in-abyei).

It is more and more likely that the situation in #Sudan will fuel conflict in #Abyei / #SouthSudan and the other way around.

On 27 January, a Ghanaian #UN peacekeeper of the force separating a #Sudan-controlled North and a South Sudanese occupied South (#UNISFA) has been killed as a result of the attacks, which have targeted both the city of #Abyei and other areas, making 42 other victims.

Meanwhile Southern #Abyei has been the theatre of so-called ethnic violence between Ngoc and Twic Dinka, helped by Nuer elements, for several months. This conflict follows another in 2022 over the delimitation of the border between Abyei and the neighbouring Warrap and Unity states (#SouthSudan).

Genocide in #Abyei

Genocide is currently ongoing in #Darfur, and other ethnic/tribal conflicts rock #Sudan alongside the conflict between warlords Hemedti and Burhan, as underlined by a recent #UN report as well as an #ICC investigation.

This follows the news of Babanusa's fall (West #Kordofan), which is for the most part in the hands of the #RSF after several days of fighting, thus opening the way to capital Al Fulah, several oilfields and the contested region of #Abyei.

This event takes place while secret talks are said to be undertaken between the RSF and the SAF "in the Gulf" (https://sudanwarmonitor.com/p/secret-talks-between-rival-sudanese).

The #RSF are collaborating with General Buay, a South Sudanese rebel (SSPM/A) while advancing along an undefined border and a contested region. While #Abyei is supposedly demilitarized and its inhabitants are citizens of both #Sudan and #SouthSudan, it is in fact divided between a Sudanese north (Misseriya) and a South Sudanese occupied south (Dinka), both parties separated by a #UN force (#UNISFA).

Clashes are sporadic in Al Fasher (North #Darfur). The states of #WhiteNile and #Sennar are poorly defended and in imminent danger, despite Malik Agar's (Nr 2 of the #TSC) efforts to keep the #RSF away from the #BlueNile state.

This new victory opens the way to state capital Al Fulah (West #Kordofan), as well as a number of oil fields, including contested Heglig, Fulla and Deffra, in #Abyei.

It also puts the RSF on a collision course with #SouthSudan and #SPLMN.

La frontière entre le #Soudan et le #SoudanduSud fait toujours aujourd'hui l'objet de contestations, 12 ans après la partition. Heglig est contesté par le Soudan du Sud. L'#Abyei est un territoire à statut spécial, supposément démilitarisé, mais de fait délimité entre un nord sous contrôle soudanais / misseriya et un sud sous contrôle de l'armée sud-soudanaise / dinka, y compris la capitale Abyei.

Les #FSR collaborent avec les forces du Général Buay, un rebelle sud-soudanais (SSPM/A). S'ils parvenaient à prendre Babanusa, il est probable qu'ils cherchent ensuite à prendre le contrôle des infrastructures pétrolières qui leur échappent encore, à Fulla et Heglig.

Leur confrontation frontale avec les Misseriya et l'enjeu du champ pétrolier de Diffra les attireront très probablement en #Abyei.

Nouveaux fronts au #Soudan : #Kordofan, #Abyei, Nil blanc, Sennar

Au Kordofan, la progression rapide des #FSR ces derniers mois laissaient présager des difficultés avec les Misseriya (ouest) et les Nuba (SPLM-N, sud).

Les seconds semblent s'être entendus avec l'armée pour bouter les #FSR hors de Dilling (Kordofan du Sud) et en prendre le contrôle. Le #SPLMN avait jusqu'ici profité de la guerre civile pour disputer des positions aux #FAS.

https://www.sudanspost.com/south-sudan-army-accuses-rsf-of-backing-rebels-beefs-up-northern-border-security/