evidence: The oil-rich Abyei Administrative Area straddles the border between Sudan’s West Kordofan state and South Sudan’s Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, Warrap, and Unity states. The area has been claimed and disputed by both countries since South Sudan gained independence in 2011. Abyei is strategically important, home to oil fields, farmland, and pasture.1Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, ‘Crisis in Abyei- HART Briefing,’ 27 April 2022 Violence has frequently erupted in the area since at least 2011 due to land and resource-sharing disputes between the communities inhabiting the region.2Joshua Craze, ‘Dividing lines: Grazing and conflict along the Sudan-South Sudan border,’ Small Arms Survey, July 2013 Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the violence, as the political status of Abyei remains unresolved and measures to manage inter-communal disputes are lacking. Thus far in 2023, dozens of people have been reportedly killed in violence between Twic Dinka and Ngok Dinka communities in Abyei (see map below).