UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- UN Undersecretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said Thursday that the peace process in Abyei, a territory contested by Sudan and South Sudan, remains fragile despite some positive developments.
The past six months saw enhanced collaboration between Sudan and South Sudan, as evidenced by the Oct. 3 historic peace agreement between Sudan's transitional government and armed groups. The South Sudanese authorities facilitated the negotiation process. Also, senior officials from South Sudan have traveled to Khartoum to meet with Sudanese authorities to discuss the final status of Abyei and border areas, he told the Security Council in a briefing.
However, despite this continued rapprochement between the two countries, the peace process in Abyei has made little progress, with the main positive developments at the local level being the appointments by Juba and Khartoum of their respective chief administrators for Abyei, said Lacroix.
The general security situation in Abyei in the past six months remained rather volatile, with four attacks against the personnel of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) and four instances of intercommunal violence, including armed attacks on villages, he said.
The violence in Abyei has compounded intercommunal tensions and negatively impacted peace efforts at the local level. UNISFA's attempt to have community representatives engage within the framework of the Joint Community Peace Committee was unsuccessful, he said.
Minimum progress was made on the Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism benchmarks and the Joint Political and Security Mechanism decisions, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Lacroix.
Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as the non-issuance of entry visas have hampered the process of generating and deploying the three authorized Formed Police Units in Abyei, he said.
