The UN Security Council renewed the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) by unanimous vote on Thursday, just days after renewing the mandate of the neighboring peacekeeping force in South Sudan.
UNISFA is the force deployed in the disputed Abyei border territory, which lies between Sudan and South Sudan and is inhabited by the Ngok Dinka and seasonally by the Misseriya Arabs.
The mission was deployed to Abyei in 2011 after the withdrawal of the Sudanese army. Sudan had occupied the territory militarily in May of that year, two months before South Sudan’s independence.
UNISFA is headed by an Ethiopian general and its military component consists entirely of Ethiopian troops.
UN Security Council members passed a resolution on Thursday to extend the mandate of the mission until 15 October 2014.
The resolution also demanded that Sudan and South Sudan immediately resume the work of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC), which is supposed to work toward setting up temporary administrative arrangements for the disputed area.
Tension over the Abyei area “still has the potential to bring the Sudan and South Sudan back to war,” the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the Security Council made public in mid-May.
Ban explained, “The political processes, which were designed to resolve the dispute over its final status and restore confidence between the Ngok Dinka and Misseriya communities, are now in total paralysis.”
Peacekeepers in Abyei have been trying to control violence among herders of the two sides. Last week they recovered more than 400 sheep and goats that had been stolen from the village of Duongob, east of Abyei Town.