VP Abdelbagi calls for an end to Twic-Ngok clashes

The chairperson of the committee tasked with probing the Twic-Ngok conflict has urged the two communities to refrain from further attack.

Hussein Abdelbagi’s call comes amid series of renewed attacks between the two communities, despite signing of a pact that prohibits further violent conflict.

The latest clashes, which took place in Abyei’s Rumamer County on 2 January 2023 left 14 people dead and seven others injured.

A month earlier, suspected armed youth from Abyei killed eight people and injured several others in Akur area in Twic.

“What we want and beg of you as chiefs is to contain the situation to avoid further deaths,” said Abdelbagi, who is also the vice president for service cluster. “Control the youth, because you can also govern in the absence of police and the commissioner.”

He disclosed that the government was planning to set up a committee that would travel to Britain to seek information on the actual Bahr el Ghazal-South Kordofan border.

“We have decided to bring the map from London because the facts are in London and it is good that both Twic and Abyei believe in the 1956 border,” he added.

The intercommunal conflict between the Twic community in Warrap State and Ngok Dinka of Abyei Administrative Area erupted in February 2022 when armed Twic youth attacked Aneet, killing several people and burning down the market. The violence has claimed a total of 122 lives from both sides.

The document, which was signed in May 2022, stipulates that the conflict was triggered by border issues and recommended establishment of a court to try perpetrators of violence in the area and a border commission to demarcate internal boundaries among others.

For his part, the acting Twic Paramount Chief, Sultan Deng Mayen, promised to persuade the youth to stop the attacks.