Sudan delays signing of Darfur force status deal
February 4, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan has postponed the signing of legal framework of Darfur hybrid peacekeeping operation saying a date would be determined later.
The agreement is supposed to define the parameters for the composition, type of equipment and weapons UNAMID will possess, as well as assign land for use by the mission.
“It is sort of an operational and practical measure,” Abdal-Mahmood Sudan UN’s envoy, said last week. “It also contains what the government will give them [Hybrid Operation] in terms of immunities and what will be their privileges in the country.” He added.
Technical delegations from the Sudan, African Union and the United Nations had negotaited the SOFA in Khartoum last month. Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon discussed the agreement on the sideline of the African summit in Addis Ababa last week.
The UNAMID spokesperson, Noureddine Mezni, said on Monday that the hybrid mission was satisfied with the final draft. However he declined to give the details of the deal.
A foreign ministry official said Sudan was still consulting UNAMID on finalising the draft, but Mezni said the current draft was acceptable to the U.N. and the African Union.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, also told reporters in Addis Ababa last week that “All the key issues have been resolved.” “On the composition of the force, we understand the position of the government is that [it will be] predominantly an African force, that is why we expedited the deployment of African units.
“We want at the same time to prepare for the deployment of a few non-African units for capacity that might not be available in Africa,” added Guéhenno.
Guéhenno had mush insisted on the crucial need for four key non-African units to the force: a Thai infantry battalion, two Nepalese special forces contingents and a Scandinavian engineering unit.
The UNAMID force took over on December 31 from the struggling, inexperienced African Union force of 7,000 troops and police who had failed to stem the violence in Darfur.
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Nixon Andu
Sudan delays signing of Darfur force status deal
It is most obvious that the Sudan government had a reason for postponding the signing of the legal framework of the Darfur hybrid peacekeeping operation and that reason is the miscalculated strategy that the Chadian rebel could take over Chad. Unfortunately, that strategy will not work and it is making a U-turn back to Sudan.