The African Union is calling for “restraint” after recent killings and abductions as well as raiding of livestock in various villages in the Abyei Area.
In a statement on Monday, AU Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said she is “deeply concerned” by the incidents, urging Abyei communities to exercise utmost restraint and “to desist from any action likely to heighten tension in the Area.”
Zuma appealed to the Sudanese and South Sudanese governments to renew efforts to establish a police service in Abyei, “as well as of the administrative bodies agreed to within the framework of the ‘Temporary Arrangements on the Administration and Security of Abyei.'”
She was referring to an agreement made on 20 June 2011, which remains largely unimplemented.
She also called for the resumption of work of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC), which is co-chaired by a representative of the Sudanese government and one of the South Sudanese government.
The AJOC’s work has stalled and the South’s recent representative to the joint committee has defected to the rebel group SPLM-IO.