One person was killed last Sunday in an attack by an armed militia group on a village in the Abyei region.

The head of Abyei administration, Mario Kuol, named the victim as Goc Malek, a civilian from the village of Nyigen Achuar approximately 7km from Abyei town.

Kuol told Radio Tamazuj that the group had seemingly fired on people at random and criticised the Ethiopian peacekeeping force in the area for ‘frequently’ failing to protect civilians.

Both the resident Dinka Ngok and the pastoralist Misseriya communities in Abyei have recently exchanged accusations of attacks on one another.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, recently called upon the governments of Sudan and South Sudan to reach an agreement on the contested, oil-rich border region of Abyei.  Both sides have demilitarised the border region as an agreement signed last September was finally implemented, leaving an Ethiopian peacekeeping force in their place.

File photo by Radio Tamazuj: A main street of Abyei town at dusk

Related: UN Secretary General calls on Bashir and Kiir to resolve Abyei (15 April 2013)