U.N. Security Council boosts peacekeeping force in Abyei: U.N. Security Council approved an extra 1,126 troops for a U.N. peacekeeping force in the flashpoint Abyei region, claimed by Sudan and South Sudan and a base for several armed groups. The 15-member council extended for six months the mandate of the mission, known as UNISFA, and boosted to 5,326 the number of troops, provided by Ethiopia, in the province, prized for fertile land and oil reserves. "The presence of armed groups inside the Safe Demilitarised Zone remains a considerable security concern," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council in a report that requested the increase in peacekeepers. South Sudan split from its northern neighbour in 2011 under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war. Like South Sudan, Abyei was meant to have an independence referendum, agreed under the 2005 deal, but Sudan and South Sudan have been unable to agree which tribal members should participate.

U.N. Security Council boosts peacekeeping force in Abyei - World Updates | The Star Online: "U.N. peacekeepers have been administering Abyei since Sudan seized it in May 2011 following an attack on a convoy of peacekeepers and Sudanese soldiers which the United Nations blamed on southern forces. Khartoum later withdrew its forces under a U.N. peace plan." CLICK LINK TO READ MORE

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