A total of 19 people, including an aid worker, were killed in ethnically and tribally-motivated attacks in Abyei, an area on the border of Sudan and South Sudan claimed by Khartoum and Juba, local authorities announced Sunday.

Deadly clashes are common in Abyei, an area whose status remains unresolved since South Sudan gained independence in 2011 and remains under the protection of UN peacekeepers.

Last weekend, violent incidents of a similar nature resulted in the deaths of 54 people, including two UN peacekeepers. The clashes involved members of two ethnic Dinka tribes, the Ngok, who live in Abyei, and the Twik, who live in Warap state.

“Attacks against civilians have resulted in the loss of human lives, the burning of markets, the looting of goods and the theft of livestock. The toll is 19 dead and 18 injured,” the Abyei authorities said in a press release published yesterday Sunday.

One person was killed in an attack the day before Saturday and three others were “kidnapped”, while another 18 were killed yesterday, “including four women, three children and an MSF worker” (according to the non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders). In addition, “18 injured, including three women and two children” were counted in attacks by Tweek youths and an armed paramilitary group, according to authorities.

“This cycle of coordinated attacks is contrary to the presidential order that called for a peaceful settlement” of the conflict between the Ngoc and Tuik clans, the text added.

The conflict between the Twik and Ngok tribes, who both belong to the Dinka ethnic group, the country’s most populous, began in 2022 over land claims in an area on the border of Abyei and Warap state.

In January, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir called for a ceasefire, months after at least 32 people were killed in clashes between the two tribes in November.