The UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, has announced the appointment of a Nigerian general and a senior Mauritian AU lawyer to assume the task of investigating the killing in May 2013 of Ngok Dinka chief Kuol Deng Kuol.

Speaking at a press conference in Khartoum on Friday, Ladsous condemned the killing of Kuol, saying he was a man of peace, and describing his assassination as “a shameful issue” underscoring that “the international community wants to know what happened there”.

Ladsous also announced that an additional Ethiopian battalion is to be deployed in Abyei in August, and called on Sudan and South Sudan to be committed to implement the cooperation deal which was signed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa last September.

He lamented the “fluctuation and decrease of relations between the two countries since September” and said “the Security Council oversees the relations between the two sides and supports the African Union proposal on resolving the crisis between Khartoum and Juba, including Abyei”.

He also expressed the international community’s concern about the humanitarian situation in Kordofan and Blue Nile: “It is a right of Khartoum to refuse entry to organisations and we respect their opinion, but we should address this issue because the situation is dire and we hope the outcome of negotiations between the government and SPLA north would allow for the provision of food for the affected”.

Friday marked the end of an official three-day visit by Ladsous to Sudan.