Rebels call on Security Council to investigate charges against UNAMID

April 23, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – Rebel groups called on the United Nations Security Council to investigate allegations raised by a former spokesperson of the hybrid mission in Darfur (UNAMID) about false reporting on the security situation in western Sudan region.

Aicha Elbasri, UN former spokesperson who worked in Darfur mission from 2012 to 2013 told different international media including Foreign Policy and BBC that the UNAMID failed to fulfil its mandate and protect civilians in Darfur who sometimes were killed near by the mission’s bases.

She further said the joint African Union and United Nations operation produced false reports about the security situation stressing that “The conspiracy of silence was much larger than UNAMID. It extended all the way to Ban Ki-moon”.

In a joint letter addressed to the president of the Security Council on 17 April, rebel leaders from Darfur region: Abdel Wahid Nur; Gibriel Ibrahim and Minni Minnawi appealed on the 15-member body to urgently investigate these allegations.

The three rebel leaders called for “Immediate launch of investigation into the serious allegations raised by Dr. Albasri against UN officials and the deliberate misinformation that has characterized reports on Darfur since 2008”.

The letter further urged to probe the accusations raised against two former heads of the joint mission, Rodoulf Adada and Ibrahim Gambari for declaring “in numerous occasions” that the war in Darfur was over or the conflict there had become of “low intensity”.

The rebels also raised the wave of attacks on civilians in North and South Darfur states committed by the government militias of Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and asked to investigate the “recent escalation of the genocide scheme”.

The troubled region witnessed last March a series of attacks by the RSF militias which is part of the national security apparatus now. The militiamen burnt villages and attacked civilians, after attacks by the Sudan Liberation Movement Minni Minnawi.

The three non-signatory rebel groups, took the opportunity to demand the separation between the “conflicting duties” of the UNAMID chief and the joint peace mediator.

The former UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari struggled in the past to get the two positions arguing that peacemaking cannot be separated from peacekeeping. He took the two positions after the signing of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur in July 2011.

(ST)