Sudan summons UNAMID on statements about army movements
May 26, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan summoned the hybrid peacekeeping force on Tuesday to demand it refrain from issuing statements about the movements of the army in Darfur.
Following an attack by the rebel Justice and Equality Movement on Um Baru, UNAMID information director Kemal Saiki told news agencies that the small border town had been captured by the rebels last Sunday. Some 24 hours later, Saiki retracted his statement after a denial by the Sudanese army spokesperson reaffirming that governmental troops had repelled the JEM attack.
The rebels “did make a push for it, but they did not overrun the post. Put it down to the fog of war,” Saiki said in his retraction.
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry called the representative of the AU-UN peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) in Khartoum, Mr. Ahmed Anty, and asked him to refrain from statements concerning the movements of the Sudan Armed Forces and their operations against the rebels.
Acting Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ali Youssef, said today he had asked UNAMID officials to stop such statements. The Sudanese official added he requested the peacekeepers to get information from the appropriate source, the spokesperson of the army.
He also said that the UNAMID official agreed to respect the Sudanese government’s demand.
Last Sunday, the UNAMID information official based his statements on a report received from the peacekeeping compound in Um Baru. “Um Baru was overrun. It has fallen,” he said, “Our own base just a few kilometers away heard the heavy gunfire.”
More than a year after the signing of Darfur Peace Agreement and huge international pressure, the Sudanese government agreed in July 2007 to deploy a 26,000-strong international force, but mainly composed of Africans, in the troubled region.
However, with the collapse of the Abuja agreement and the continuation of the violence in the region, the mandate of the mission has not seemed to correspond with the reality on the ground.
U.N. officials have said UNAMID needs a peace to keep and blame the lack of a political process for the deterioration in security.
Also relations have been tense between Sudan and UN officials in the past, particularly when they deal with the military situation in the troubled region. In October 2006 Khartoum ordered the former UN representative Jan Pronk out of the country after he reported on his personal weblog that the Sudanese army had suffered major losses in fighting against rebels in Darfur.
At least 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes in the strife-torn western region, according to the United Nations.
(ST)