UN and AU discuss strategy for peacekeepers to leave Darfur

THE AU and the UN are talking to Sudan’s government about how best to configure a strategy for AU-UN peacekeeping to eventually leave Darfur, the head of that operation said yesterday.

“In view of the circumstances in Darfur, a pragmatic reconfiguration of Unamid (the AU-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur) will become necessary and the AU and UN will have to focus on how best that could be done without compromising the gains thus far made,” the joint special representative, Kingsley Mamabolo, told the Security Council.

He said that from March 5 to 17, Unamid received an AU-UN strategic review team, which met the government of Sudan in Khartoum and visited Darfur.

Unamid is awaiting the outcome of the team’s deliberations.

The three strategic priorities established by the Security Council in 2014 continue to provide a framework within which Unamid implements its mandate to protect civilians, mitigate inter-communal conflicts and mediate between Khartoum and armed movements that have not signed a peace deal for Sudan.

“The Darfur of today is a very different place from what this region was in 2003, when the armed conflict began, and from that of a year ago,” Mamabolo said.

He noted that fighting between Sudanese government forces and the main three non-signatory armed movements had greatly diminished.

The past three months have also witnessed a continued reduction in the number of inter-communal security incidents as a result of the more effective involvement of the native administrations and the impact of security measures by state governments, leading to more peace agreements.