Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, has called for urgent humanitarian assistance for victims of intercommunal violence in the Abyei Special Administrative Area (ASAA).
The humanitarian organisation said its activities in the area had been adjusted to respond to the growing needs of displaced people.
Heavy clashes erupted in February in Agok town, a town in ASAA, which is a contested zone located on the border between South Sudan and Sudan.
Covering 4,000 square miles of desert, farmland, and oil fields located along the ill-defined border between Sudan and South Sudan, Abyei is claimed by both countries and has been a source of conflict in Sudan for over 50 years.
Its border location has led to conflicting ethnic, cultural, and linguistic claims which have resulted in numerous inter-communal clashes.
With violence recently escalating in the area, many have been forced to abandon their homes and seek shelter in neighbouring towns of Turalei, Wunrok, Mayem Abun, and Nyindeng in Twic County.
Humanitarian organisations have also been forced to suspend operations in the region as a result of the violence.
‘Since the most recent outbreaks of violence, there are no longer patients coming into the MSF hospital in Agok’, MSF’s Head of Mission, Trish Newport, said in a statement.
‘Our team in Agok have been temporarily relocated to Abyei town to respond to urgent medical needs there.
‘We are also responding to the urgent needs of the newly displaced people in Twic County. We will continue to monitor the context, and if required, we will adapt our operations further to respond where the needs are greatest’.
According to MSF, approximately 32,000 people have been displaced so far, with the majority of them women and children.
MSF, which has been providing food and non-food items since 27 February, urged other humanitarian organisations to step in before the crisis worsens.
‘MSF alone cannot cover the dire needs of food, shelter and sanitation for the large number of displaced people for long’, Newport added.
‘Humanitarian activities need to be scaled up to accommodate the current situation in both the Abyei and Twic County regions. We are appealing to other organisations to urgently respond to this emergency’.
Photo source: MSF
