Sudan summons British ambassador over UNAMID mandate renewal

June 18, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese foreign ministry Thursday summoned the British ambassador to Khartoum, Peter Topper, to express its concern over a draft resolution submitted to the UN Security Council by the United Kingdom about the renewal of the African Union – United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

“During the meeting, the undersecretary at the foreign ministry Abdel Gani al-Naeim described the draft resolution as unjust and “inconsistent with the positive developments in Darfur, said the foreign ministry spokesperson Ali al Sadiq on Thursday .

Al-Sadiq further said the draft resolution ignored the work conducted by the tripartite committee of the Sudanese government, African Union and the United Nations on a exit strategy of the hybrid peacekeeping mission from Darfur.

In his written statement, the Sudanese diplomat said the draft resolution was based on a recent progress report by secretary-general where he says that attacks by government militias displaced nearly 80,000 civilians in Darfur.

The Sudanese government strongly condemned the “misleading” report and accused the international organization attributing recent displacement of civilians which is triggered by tribal fighting to the government militiamen.

The Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations Hassan Hamid Hassan said the report ” inverted the facts and misled the members of the UN Security Council”. He further said that “some of the information provided therein is not accurate at all. ”

Sudanese government officials say the regular army and its militias cleared the region from rebel groups, adding that the “Decisive Summer” military campaign restored security particularly after the defeat of the fighters of Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in South Darfur state last April.

According to the spokesperson, al-Naeim also regretted that the draft resolution authored by United Kingdom linked between Darfur and the situation in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states where the Sudanese army fights the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North.

He further stressed on the need to respect the work of the tripartite mechanism saying it demonstrated its ability to solve all the problems related to exit strategy from Darfur.

The UN Security Council is expected to adopt a resolution extending the UNAMID mandate for another year on 24 June 2015.

(ST)