New head of Darfur hybrid mission arrives in Sudan

January 22, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The new head of the hybrid mission and peacekeeping force in Darfur arrived to the Sudanese capital on Friday to assume his duties.

The former Nigerian foreign minister, Ibrahim Gambari who served recently as top United Nations envoy for Myanmar, has been appointed by UN Secretary General and AU AU Chairperson last December as Joint Special Representative and head of the joint African Union-UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID), effective 1 January 2010.

He succeed the Congolese Rodolphe Adada who became unpopular with Western capitals towards the end of his term after declaring that the conflict in Darfur is over and degraded it to “low intensity” violence.

“The expectations are very high in terms of what my colleagues and I will be able to achieve but also the goodwill is enormous from the top level of this government and others and I intend to call upon that goodwill so that the mandate of UNAMID will be fully implemented,” Ibrahim said following his arrival at Khartoum airport on Friday.

“We will do everything necessary to see to the implementation of the mandate,” he stressed.

Before to travel to El-Fasher where the UNAMID headquarters are, Gambari will meet with a number of Sudanese officials in Khartoum including the President Omer Al-Bashir. Also, he will hold a series of meetings with regional authorities in the troubled Darfur.

“I look forward very much to working with all the stakeholders in this country including the media,” Mr. Gambari said.

(ST)