Sudan-South Sudan: UN extends Abyei peacekeeping mandate to 2025

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has approved an extension of the mandate for the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) until 2025. The decision preserves the current troop and police levels while calling for a strategic review to assess the Force’s objectives and its ability to adapt to changing security conditions in the region.

Yesterday, the UN Security Council voted to adopt Resolution S/RES/2760(2024) with 14 votes in favour and none against, while Russia abstained. The resolution extends the UNISFA mandate in the disputed* Abyei border region between Sudan and South Sudan until November 15, 2025.

Explaining her position, the Russian delegate remarked: “Nobody has the right to undermine the legitimacy of a government, especially when they are fully fledged members of the UN and of the international community.” She also criticised what she described as unrelated provisions in the resolution, adding: “We do not like the approach taken by the penholder to use any given case to meet their own unhealthy demands on how to resolve the conflict in Sudan.”

The United States, the penholder, prepared the initial draft of the resolution on October 29 and held one round of negotiations on November 6. A revised draft was circulated on Monday and placed under a gag order until noon the following day.

Expanded role

The UNSC resolution extended UNISFA’s role in supporting the Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism, also until November 2025. It condemned “in the strongest terms” the presence of South Sudanese military forces in Abyei and demanded their immediate withdrawal without conditions.

In addition, the Council urged Sudanese and South Sudanese authorities to cooperate fully with UNISFA by expediting the deployment of personnel and equipment, ensuring freedom of movement, and facilitating the uninterrupted delivery of essential supplies such as food and medicine to the peacekeeping mission.

Two UNISFA peacekeepers were among 52 people killed in an outbreak of violence in Abyei last January.

The resolution pressed both governments to take concrete steps towards demilitarising the Abyei region, and reaffirmed UNISFA’s authority to seize and destroy weapons within the area as part of its mandate and capabilities.

It also includes a request for the UN Secretary-General to conduct a strategic review of the Force. The review, due by 15 August 2025, is expected to evaluate how UNISFA can better address the evolving security landscape, ensuring its efforts remain aligned with regional stability and peacekeeping objectives.

*Since the secession of South Sudan from Sudan in 2011, both countries claim the border area of Abyei. The oil-rich region is inhabited primarily by members of the South Sudanese Dinka Ngok clan. It is also the seasonal home of the Sudanese Arab Misseriya herder tribe. The Abyei status referendum, in which the residents of the region would decide either to remain part of Sudan or become part of South Sudan, was planned to be held simultaneously to the South Sudanese independence referendum in January 2011, but was postponed indefinitely because of disagreements over the process.