Unamid’s Sudanese staff lift strike

The Sudanese staff members of Unamid, who went on strike on 28 July, have agreed to lift the strike pending the response of UN officials to their demands.

In a meeting of the General Assembly of the Unamid National Staff Association on Thursday, following a closed video link meeting on Wednesday night with UN officials in New York, the members agreed to honour an ultimatum requested by the Chief of Mission to wait until the end of next week.

The Sudanese Unamid staff embarked on a general strike on 28 July to enforce their demands for the payment of their salaries in US Dollars instead of Sudanese currency, as was decided for national staff on the payroll of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in February, as well as issues related to health insurance, pensions, replacement of imported international staff with local Sudanese, and capacity building.

Khalil Tokras, spokesman for the Unamid National Staff Association, told Radio Dabanga that the staff decided to suspend the strike from Monday as “a goodwill gesture”, after receiving a message from the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Field Support in New York. In his letter to the staff, the UN official expressed his willingness to discuss their demands through video link.

Mohamed El Bagir, the information officer of the Association said that during the closed video link meeting on Wednesday night, UN New York officials pledged to review the situation and notify them of the result within a week.