A meeting of traditional leaders of the Misseriya and Ngok Dinka tribes from Abyei that was scheduled to take place today in Addis Ababa has been postponed to 20 June, a traditional leader said.

Hamad Al Dudo, an emir of Al Mazaghna clan of the Misseriya tribe, told Radio Tamazuj that they were informed that the AJOC-mediated peace conference would not take place as scheduled.

He said the postponement came again after a request by South Sudan’s co-chair of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC).

The tribal leader expressed discontent about this latest delay of the peace meeting, which has been pushed back several times before. However, he confirmed his tribe’s readiness to participate in the meeting that is expected to resolve differences between the two tribes in the contested territory.

He called upon the AU mediators to expedite the process in order to solve the problems that could arise as the rainy season begins in the area.

Meanwhile, Dinka Ngok Paramount Chief Bulabek Deng Kuol told Radio Tamazuj that the neither the UN's Abyei mission administration nor South Sudan’s AJOC committee informed them about the postponement of the Addis Ababa meeting.

However, Bulabek confirmed their readiness to participate in the meeting at any time. Previously, Ngok Dinka leaders set as a precondition for reconciliation talks with the Misseriya that the perpetrators of the killing of Paramount Chief Kuol Deng be brought to justice.