UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations security force has intensified its ground and aerial patrols in Abyei -- a region straddling Sudan and South Sudan -- in an effort to prevent additional violence following a weekend of fierce clashes in the oil-rich region that resulted in the loss of lives, according to UN News on Monday.
Heavily armed assailants attacked civilians in the villages of Malual Aleu, Banton, Awolnhom, Abathok, Majbong, Awal, and east of Rumamier, using rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, reportedly over a land dispute.
According to UN News, the conflict resulted in at least 37 fatalities and multiple injuries among civilians, including women and children. Additionally, several villages were torched, and thousands of cattle were reportedly stolen.
The Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) "strongly denounces the ongoing violence, which is escalating intercommunal tensions and threatening the fragile peace," the mission said in a statement on Monday.
UNISFA is making all efforts to restore calm, protect civilians, and engage with local authorities, community leaders, civil society, and other stakeholders to prevent retaliatory attacks, it added.
According to UNISFA, peacekeepers serving with the mission were also targeted during the clashes.
An armored personnel carrier came under heavy fire during an ambush, and UN "blue helmets" at a base in Marial Achak were fired upon before the attackers were repelled.
The bloodshed came a week after more than 50 people, including two UN peacekeepers, were killed in similar attacks on civilians over land disputes.
UNISFA peacekeepers are currently sheltering and providing basic support to more than 2,000 of those displaced in its bases.
"Among the displaced are hundreds of children, pregnant women, elderly, and people with disabilities," Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said at the regular press briefing.
"Humanitarian teams continue to carry out assessments in villages impacted by those hostilities. A health team also carried out medical consultations," said the spokesperson.
In June 2011, the Security Council authorized the deployment of UN peacekeepers to the disputed Abyei Administrative Area.
The council's action came in response to rampant violence and population displacement in the region as South Sudan was preparing to formally declare independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011, culminating in the 2005 peace accord.
The resource-abundant region of Abyei experienced numerous fatal confrontations, displacing over 100,000 individuals from their homes in the weeks leading up to the Security Council's decision. ■
