Roundup: Darfur status quo could lead to more bloodshed, AU-UN envoy says

The head of the African Union (AU) and United Nations peacekeeping operations in Sudan's Darfur, Jeremiah N. Mamabolo, said here Tuesday that the Darfur status quo could lead to more bloodshed as a "different" Darfur has emerged since 2003.

Mamabolo said while briefing the UN Security Council that "the Darfur of today is a very different place from what the region was in 2003, when the armed conflict began, and from that of a year ago."

Fighting between forces of the government of Sudan and the main three non-signatory armed movements has considerably diminished. However, against the backdrop of economic hardship and social depression, banditry and criminality continue to be widespread.

Mamabolo said that efforts to get parties to the conflict to sign a cessation of hostilities agreement and to start direct negotiations towards an inclusive peace agreement have remained inconclusive.

He warned that the status quo is hurting all parties and can only lead to more bloodshed.

Meanwhile, he also stressed the need to identify durable solutions to enable the return of internally displaced people to their places of origin or reintegration.

"In view of the current circumstances in Darfur, a pragmatic reconfiguration of UNAMID (the AU-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur) will become necessary and the AU and UN will have to focus on how best that could be done without compromising the gains thus far made," said Mamabolo.

He said that on March 5-17, UNAMID received an AU-UN strategic review team, which met with the government of Sudan in Khartoum and Darfur, and travelled throughout the Darfur region. UNAMID awaits the outcome of these deliberations.

The three strategic priorities established by the Council in 2014 continue to provide a framework within which UNAMID implements its mandate to protect civilians, mitigate inter-communal conflicts and mediate between the government and the non-signatory armed movements.

The past three months have also witnessed a continued reduction in the number of inter-communal security incidents, in particular as a result of the more effective involvement of the native administrations and the impact of security measures by State governments, leading to an increased number of peace agreements.

Furthermore, UNAMID has not seen any new displacement in 2017.

Cooperation with the government has noticeably improved in terms of humanitarian access. UNAMID and the UN country team have repeatedly been able to visit previously off-limits areas in Jebel Marra while UN humanitarian partners are commencing regular helicopter flights to Golo.

However, efforts by the AU High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) to get warring parties to sign a cessation of hostilities agreement and start direct negotiations towards an inclusive peace agreement to end the conflict have remained inconclusive, Mamabolo said.

Although the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid al-Nur (SLA/AW) is no longer capable of mounting and sustaining significant military operations, it continues to refuse to join the peace process and seems to want to continue to fight, he explained.

"We would like to appeal to this Council and those with influence and leverage on him to persuade him to recognize the importance of a political settlement and desist from bringing more suffering to the very people that he professes to represent," Mamabolo said.

In February 2015, a tripartite committee composed of Sudan's government, the UN and the African Union, was formed with the aim to reach a deal on UNAMID's exit from Darfur.

UNAMID took over the peacekeeping task in Darfur from the African Union Mission in Sudan on Dec. 31, 2007.

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

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