‘Darfuri contractor of hijacked vehicles acted against instructions’: Unamid

The Unamid vehicles hijacked by a group of militiamen in South Darfur on Tuesday, had departed from Nyala, capital of South Darfur, without prior notice to the peacekeeping mission.

In a press release today, the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (Unamid) reported that the local contractor “acted against repeated instructions from the Mission not to move the Contingent-Owned Equipment (COE), without Unamid armed escort.”

The contractor had also misinformed the Mission that its convoy would be escorted by an appropriate force from Sudanese Customs Police.

“Regrettably,” Unamid stated, “the contractor contravened the instructions, and mobilised the COE convoy from his warehouse in Nyala without prior notice to the Mission; and indeed without any form of escort, as previously indicated by him.”

Unamid further expressed its gratefulness to the government forces “who pursued and apprehended the perpetrators, and recovered the hijacked vehicles”.

The peacekeeping mission stressed that it has “consistently acted within its mandate and within the perimeters of its Status of Forces Agreement” signed with the Sudanese government.

“The Mission shall continue to discharge its mandated activities, despite the daunting challenges,” the press release concludes.