Government to form special court to try atrocities committed during communal violence

By Awan Achiek

The government has plans to form a special court to try atrocities committed during violence between Twic community of Warrap State and Ngok Dinka of Abyei Special Administrative Area.

The Executive Director in the Office of Vice President for Service Cluster, Ayang Garang on Saturday said that the government in consultation with the Khartoum administration and the United Nations Interim Force for Abyei (UNISFA) recently agreed on modalities which include the formation of the special court.

“One of the modalities was a cessation of hostilities agreement which was signed in Aweil which recommended the number of measures including formation of special court, and special prosecution unit to prosecute crimes that were committed during the clashes between these two sisterly communities,” Garang was quoted by the state-owned television SSBC.

This revelation came in the wake of last week’s meeting in Juba, between the Vice President for Service Cluster and also the Chairperson of the Aneet Investigation Committee, Hussein Abdelbagi Akol and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa Hanna Tetteh, who is also in charge of the Abyei file.

Garang said the meeting also discussed the need to settle the issue of the Abyei disputed area.

“Another modality is the continued engagement of the government of the Republic of South Sudan and the UN and other stakeholders and Sudanese government to try to find a solution, especially on the issue of Abyei,” he said.

Abyei is an oil-rich area that is jointly administered by South Sudan and Sudan, which have both staked claims to it.

In February 2022, fighting erupted at Aneet market in the Abyei Administrative Area over ownership of the land.

President Salva Kiir in the aftermath of the violence formed an ad-hoc committee to investigate the killings in the Aneet market.

The Ad-hoc committee headed by Vice President for Service Cluster, Hussein Abdelbagi arrested four people including a state minister believed to have incited the violence.

On May 5th, leaders from the two communities reached an agreement to cease hostilities but later on, fighting erupted again with both sides trading blame.

Since then, armed youth from the two communities have launched offensive attacks against each other.