Sudan’s Bashir discusses UNAMID mandate with UN official

June 4, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese president Omer Al-Bashir met on Thursday with the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, Hervé Ladsous, to discuss the situation in Darfur and the mandate of the joint peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

Ladsous will finish today a three-day visit to Sudan he started on 2 July. On Wednesday he visited El-Daein, capital of East Darfur, where he met community leaders and visited Al-Neem camp for displaced people. On Thursday, he paid a visit to peacekeepers hospitalized in Nyala, capital of South Darfur, after being injured in an ambush in Lavado, East Darfur.

Speaking about the meeting with Bashir, the French diplomat told reporters he discussed the renewal of UNAMID mandate which will be renewed at the end of this month and the implementation of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD).

He further expressed hopes that the government fulfils its commitments as provided in the DDPD, and reiterated the support of the international organisation to the ongoing efforts to solve the problem peacefully.

He also disclosed that UNAMID patrol heading to Nyala was ambushed by unknown gunmen in Lavado, East Darfur on Wednesday and three Nigerian soldiers were wounded.

He said they kept a body of one of the assailants killed during the clashes and they hope that the joint investigation with the Sudanese government would help to identify the gunmen who attacked the peacekeepers.

He added that the attackers shot an ambulance travelling with the patrol.

Ladsous said he also discussed during his meeting with Bashir the relations between Khartoum and Juba and the recent talks chaired by Ali Osman Taha and the Riek Machar on the implementation of 27 September agreements between the two countries.

The UN official will also visit South Sudan which is part of his regional tour.

INVESTIGATION in ABYEI

The visiting UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping told reporters in Khartoum that a Nigerian general is appointed to lead an investigation on the incident which led to the death of the Dinka Ngok paramount chief Kuol Deng Kuol in Abyei on 4 May.

Kuol died when his convoy, which had been escorted by the UNISFA, was ambushed by armed members of the nomadic Arab Misseriya tribe, as he returned to Abyei town after a visit further north.

Ladsous said that the United Nations wants to know what happened there, adding that the fact finding team will work with all the parties which had been present at the scene.

Last June Khartoum appointed a commission to probe the attack.

(ST)