Coordination Mechanism on Unamid: ‘Situation in Darfur improved significantly’

On Sunday, representatives of the Sudanese government, the AU and the UN met in Khartoum for the 25^th meeting of the Tripartite Coordination Mechanism on the UN-AU peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (Unamid).

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.

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.

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.

 ‘Improved situation’

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.

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

The meeting also took note of the ongoing work of the Strategic Review on Unamid being jointly conducted by UN and AU.

Exit of Unamid

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

On June 29, the UN Security Council renewed Unamid’s mandate 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 More than a third of the nearly 19,000 Unamid military troops and police officers were to be withdrawn.

In September last year, rebel movements protested the alleged handing of two North Darfur bases to the country’s main militia.

With the handing of the Zamzam team site in North Darfur to the Sudanese authorities on October 21, 2017, Unamid completed the first phase of the reduction.

Darfur displaced, Sudanese politicians, and international activists have all warned for the consequences of a downsizing of the number of peacekeepers for the people in Darfur.