{"id":176533,"date":"2018-04-09T17:38:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T17:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dabangasudan.preview.websight.nl\/coordination-mechanism-on-unamid-situation-in-darfur-improved-significantly\/"},"modified":"2018-04-09T17:38:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T17:38:00","slug":"coordination-mechanism-on-unamid-situation-in-darfur-improved-significantly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dabangasudan.org\/en\/all-news\/article\/coordination-mechanism-on-unamid-situation-in-darfur-improved-significantly","title":{"rendered":"Coordination Mechanism on Unamid: \u2018Situation in Darfur improved significantly\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, representatives of the Sudanese government, the AU and the UN met in Khartoum for the 25th<\/sup> meeting of the Tripartite Coordination Mechanism on the UN-AU peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (Unamid).<\/strong><\/p>\n

In their opening remarks, the representatives of the Sudanese government, the AU, and UN reflected a spirit of cooperation and readiness to continue working together as Tripartite Coordination Mechanism, to ensure the effective implementation of the peacekeeping mission’s mandate in Darfur, Unamid reported in a statement on Sunday.<\/p>\n

They also appreciated efforts made so far in this regard and encouraged the technical level of the tripartite mechanism to continue its good work on the issues at hand.<\/p>\n

The discussions further touched on the operational and strategic issues pertaining to Unamid’s effective mandate implementation, and observed improvements in this regard, the statement reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 ‘Improved situation’<\/strong><\/p>\n

The participants of the meeting agreed on the significant improvement of the security and humanitarian situation in Darfur, which is creating conditions for a further substantial reconfiguration of Unamid.<\/p>\n

They expressed satisfaction about the implementation of Unamid’s reconfiguration as stated in UNSC resolution 2363 (2017) and the AUPSC Communiqué of its 691st<\/sup> meeting of  June 12, 2017, and the coordinated implementation of the Unamid reconfiguration in phase 1 and 2 so far.<\/p>\n

The meeting also took note of the ongoing work of the Strategic Review on Unamid being jointly conducted by UN and AU.<\/p>\n

Exit of Unamid<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Sudanese authorities began to push<\/a> for the exit of Unamid in end 2014, after the peacekeeping mission urged an investigation into a mass rape in North Darfur's Tabit<\/a> on October 31 that year.<\/p>\n

On June 29, the UN Security Council renewed Unamid’s mandate<\/a><\/u> for another year. It also decided on a reduction of the peacekeepers “in two six-month phases while closely monitoring the situation on the ground.” More than a third of the nearly 19,000 Unamid military troops and police officers were to be withdrawn.<\/p>\n

In September last year, rebel movements protested<\/a> the alleged handing of two North Darfur bases to the country’s main militia.<\/p>\n

With the handing of the Zamzam team site in North Darfur to the Sudanese authorities on October 21, 2017, Unamid completed the first phase<\/a> of the reduction.<\/p>\n

Darfur displaced<\/a><\/u>, Sudanese politicians<\/a><\/u>, and international activists<\/a><\/u> have all warned for the consequences of a downsizing of the number of peacekeepers for the people in Darfur.<\/p>\n