President of the Sovereign Council of Sudan announces end of UNAMID mission
The President of the Sovereign Council of Sudan, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, announced on Tuesday that he had reached an agreement with the United States to end the African Union/United Nations hybrid operation in Darfur, referred to by the acronym UNAMID, next October without the possibility of an extension.
Mr. Al-Burhan has held a telephone conversation with the United States Assistant Deputy Secretary for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, and the United States Special Representative for the Sudan, Donald Booth, in which they have agreed that UNAMID will leave the western region of the Sudan at the end of October. "Therefore, there is no place for the renewal of its mandate," stressed a statement issued by the Sudanese presidency. "During the phone call, the Chairman of the Sovereign Council agreed with the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan to terminate the UNAMID mission next October," they clarified in an official statement.
Al-Burhan and Tibur have decided to end the work of the UNAMID mission in October, while the head of the Sudanese Sovereign Council has explained that the tasks of the new UN mission will be carried out in accordance with the national vision set out in Sudan's letter to the UN on 27 February.
However, during a meeting to discuss a joint report on UNAMID's withdrawal on 26 April, the US and UK have expressed concern about the deteriorating security situation in Darfur and have stressed the need to include police units in the new mission to protect civilians in the region. "We strongly believe that the new mission can and should be a partner with the government of Sudan in responding to the challenges of protecting civilians in Darfur, particularly in the camps for internally displaced persons," British Ambassador Jonathan Allen said in a statement picked up by the Sudan Tribune.
The Sovereign Council president also thanked the United States for its support for Sudan in combating the coronavirus pandemic. In the same statement, he urged the United States to remove Sudan from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, stressing that the transitional government is operating in "complete harmony". In addition, it has asked the country led by Donald Trump to promote and support the peace negotiations sponsored by the capital of South Sudan, Juba.
In February, the country's government asked the United Nations to establish peace operations covering the entire territory "as soon as possible" during the transition process. Sudanese Prime Minister Abdala Hamdok insisted that these operations should take the form of a political mission, in accordance with Chapter VI of the UN Charter on the peaceful settlement of disputes.
UNAMID is a mission whose objective is to support the protection of civilians, facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance and ensure the safety of humanitarian personnel working in the country. In 2017, the Security Council adopted resolution 2363, which, in addition to renewing the mission's mandate, provided for the withdrawal of UNAMID troops and police force during the following year in two phases, while closely monitoring the situation on the ground. However, this mission has been renewed annually and would come to an end next October, in accordance with Al-Burhan's announcement.
One year after the coup d'état of 11 April 2019 that removed then President Omar al-Bashir from power, Sudan is still in the midst of a democratic transition process. After months of intense negotiations, a transitional government led by a civilian prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, was agreed with the civilian platform Forces for Freedom and Change, initiating a three-year period in which military and civilians would share power until elections were held. Even so, violence has remained a constant in the region, particularly in Western Darfur, where last January clashes caused more than 11,000 people to flee to the neighbouring country.
