Darfur24-Agencies
The UN Security Council failed to reach an agreement on the situation in Sudan’s Darfur region after long deliberations among the 15-member body
On Thursday, UN Security Council held a closed meeting to discuss the recent bloody clashes in Darfur region, but it failed to reach an agreement on a joint declaration or on a possible change in the situation, according to diplomats.
Last week, West Darfur State witnessed bloody clashes between Arab and non-Arab tribes that left hundreds dead and scores wounded.
The emergency meeting was held at the request of the Europeans and the United States after ethnic clashes earlier this week left more than two hundred people dead within three days in this vast region in western Sudan.
Proposal at UN Security Council
The Europeans, the United States and Mexico proposed adopting a declaration aimed at calling on the Sudanese government to speed up the implementation of its plan to protect the population, but diplomats told AFP that this proposal was rejected by African members of the Council, India, Russia and China, and all called for respecting Sudan’s sovereignty.
“This is a conflict between population groups, and there are always remnants of clashes in a country still in the post-conflict phase,” said a diplomat – who requested anonymity and belongs to the team that refused to adopt a joint statement. “This is a country in a difficult situation, and it should be helped instead of being given lessons,” he added.
According the electronic Website, Al-Arabiya Net another diplomat as saying that during the meeting, most of the council’s member states condemned the violence, and some of them emphasized that it is up to the government to fill the “gap” resulting from the exist of the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission, UNAMID, on December 31. . He said also on condition of anonymity that the withdrawal of about 8,000 members from this mission over a period of six months has not changed, considering that going backward will undermine building people’s confidence in the government.
UN Disgrace
Another diplomatic source said, “It is a serious disgrace to the United Nations,” adding that peacekeepers are present but do not have a mandate to intervene.
It is noteworthy that a fragile calm returned to Darfur a few days ago with the deployment of the Sudanese forces, but there are still fears of more violence in this Sudanese region, which has suffered from years of conflict.
At the end of last year, the United Nations indicated that the Sudanese authorities had pledged to deploy a joint protection force of 12,000 from the government forces and fighters of the Revolutionary Front Alliance in Darfur, which signed a peace agreement with the transitional government in Juba last October, to take over the task from January 2021 UNAMID peacekeepers after 13 years.
While IDPs in Darfur camps staged protest rejecting the UN security council resolution that aimed at withdrawing the peacekeeping mission UNAMID from the war-torn region of Darfur, calling on the security council to reverse its decision, saying that the Hybrid mission exist would leave a security vacuum.
Some IDP camps in Darfur, such as Kalma camp ” one of the largest and most famous camps” have been subject to the protection of peacekeepers since 2008, in the wake of armed confrontations between IDPs amd the government forces that left dozens dead and wounded.
Darfur IDPs justified their refusal of the missions to exist, saying they don’t trust the government forces that the government is preparing to deploy to protect civilians in Darfur.
The United Nations intends to remain in Sudan through a political mission based in Khartoum, which aims to support the transition in Sudan.