Roundup: Sudan, UN relationship passes through tension

The relationship between Sudan and the United Nations is currently passing through tension in the wake of a number of issues of difference, the last of which Khartoum's rejection to renew a stay permit of a senior UN official.

Khartoum's recent decision to refuse to renew the work duration of Ivo Freijsen, head of the Sudan branch of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), came to further fuel the standing difference between Sudan and the international organization.

Though Khartoum justified its move that Freijsen's work permit was temporary and that OCHA stalled about naming a substitute for Freijsen, yet it has not concealed its anger towards the UN official and accused him of publishing false reports about the situation in Sudan.

To this end, Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour told reporters Wednesday that "Freijsen does not cooperate with the Sudanese officials", noting that Freijsen published reports that Sudanese officials have not agreed on with him.

"For instance, when there are 11,000 displaced persons, Freijsen says they are 100,000," said Ghandour, pointing out that the UN official went beyond that to claim that Sudan was suffering from starvation.

OCHA office in Khartoum publishes regular reports about the humanitarian situations at the conflict zones, particularly Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions.

The Humanitarian Country Team, the coordinating agency among various UN agencies and NGOs in Sudan, regarded Khartoum's move as de facto expulsion and inconsistent with the fundamental principles of the international civil service enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the organization's foundational treaty, to which Sudan is a party.

Dr. Mohamed Hassan Saeed, a Sudanese political analyst, believes that the decision would negatively affect the standing partnership between Sudan and the UN with regard to the humanitarian work.

"It is apparent that the relationship between Sudan and the UN is not at its best, and Khartoum's decision will further aggravate the tension," Saeed told Xinhua.

"The biggest loser is the people in need of humanitarian assistance, given the importance of OCHA's role as coordinator of the humanitarian operations," he noted.

He further reiterated the importance for the two parties to speed up finding a satisfactory settlement via giving concessions such as for Sudan to renew the work permit of the UN official or for the UN to name a substitute.

In the meantime, coincident with the conflict of OCHA's head, a recent round of meetings of a tripartite mechanism entrusted with working out a strategy for the exit of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) from the region have failed.

In this connection, Ibrahim Ghandour on Wednesday disclosed that the tripartite committee, which brings together Sudan government, the UN and the African Union, has failed to agree on points of the deal on the UNAMID's exit from Darfur.

Khartoum denied that it is the reason behind the failure of the meetings of the tripartite committee.

"Sudan was not the reason behind the failure of the tripartite meetings, but this was not a surprise, and we are aware that there are big players who do not want UNAMID's exit," he noted.

In the meantime, according to viewpoints of Sudanese officials, UNAMID has failed to fulfill its task and become a burden for the Sudanese government instead.

Khartoum also said it has many evidences that UNAMID surpassed its mandate of peacekeeping in Darfur, accusing the mission of overlooking grave violations committed by some of its personnel.

Khartoum escalated its campaign against UNAMID after the mission in November 2014 adopted media reports that accused members of the Sudanese Armed Forces of mass rape operations against women in Tabit village in Sudan's North Darfur State.

UNAMID is considered the second biggest peacekeeping mission in the world, after the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It's consisted of over 20,000 personnel of military, police and civilian components, with a budget of 1.4 million U.S. dollars in 2013. Endit