UNAMID JSR: “many challenges left after Doha”

UNAMID Joint Special Representative (JSR) Ibrahim Gambari urged the African Union’s Peace and Security Council today to “lend its weight” to convince all Darfuri parties to engage “urgently and sincerely in the search for comprehensive peace in Darfur” through an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and re-engagement in the political process.

While last week’s agreement in Doha was an “important step forwards,” the JSR said, “huge challenges remain.” Among them, establishing a strategy to broaden the peace process, ensure its local ownership and establish an enabling environment of human and civil rights, in order for a local peace process to take place inside Darfur. He asked the AU Council to call on the Government of Sudan to lift its emergency laws in Darfur.
In the wake of the independence of the Republic of South Sudan and following the formal conclusion of the Doha peace process, new mechanisms and strategies may be needed to achieve a durable and sustainable peace in Darfur, he continued.

He noted that UNAMID’s renewed patrols had contributed to the opening of humanitarian access to communities that had so far been isolated by conflicts, enabling them to finally receive treatment.

Professor Gambari is currently serving as Joint Chief Mediator ad interim for the Darfur peace process. He is to deliver his latest report on UNAMID and the situation in Darfur to the UN Security Council in New York on 22 July.