The Acting Head of Mission and Force Commander of United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), Major General Benjamin Olufemi Sawyerr, on Thursday began familiarization tour of Sector South of the peacekeeping force.
The sector is under Ghanaian Battalion (Ghanbatt. 1).
At the headquarters, General Sawyerr was given operational briefing by the Ghanbatt 1 Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Eric Aboagye-Tieku.
Sawyerr had a brief stopover at Abatok and interacted with the locals to build their confidence in the work of UNISFA and to solicit their support and cooperation.
At Agok, the Force Commander met with the representative of the Abyei Chief Administrator and some traditional and community leaders.
He charged them “to promote peace and reconciliation and to live in peace with their neighbors and help channel the energies of the youth towards profitable initiatives.”
Responding, the community leaders lauded the mission’s intervention in the February communal clash between the Twic Dinka and Ngok Dinka which led to the loss of lives, noting that “but for UNISFA, a genocide would have
happened.”
General Sawyerr was accompanied on the tour by the Deputy Force Commander, Brigadier General Abu Syed Moahammod Bakir, Missions Chief of Staff, Alexander Rose, and other UNISFA senior staff.