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The United Nations is withdrawing its peacekeeping forces from Sudan’s crisis-ridden Darfur region. With the end of the Unamid mission, “responsibility for the protection of civilians” will be transferred to the Sudanese government, a statement said.
The joint mission of the UN and the African Union (AU) was active in Darfur for 13 years. Just over a week ago, the UN Security Council agreed to suspend the mission on December 31. According to the resolution, the withdrawal of personnel and equipment will begin on Friday. Must be completed by June 30.
The interim government of Khartoum called for an end to the mission, which began in 2007. Both the United Nations and the African Union had also spoken in favor of this step, despite protests by many people in Darfur against the mission headquarters in the regional capital, Nyala.
Amnesty fears a “security vacuum”
The human rights organization Amnesty International, for its part, had called for the mission to be expanded and warned of a “security vacuum”.
At the height of the Unamid mission, 16,000 peacekeepers were deployed in Darfur. In 2003, a bloody conflict broke out between rebel groups and the army under then-President Omar al-Bashir in the western region of Sudan, which, according to UN estimates, killed some 300,000 people. 2.5 million people have been displaced.
For some years now, Darfur has been relatively quiet. In recent weeks, however, there have been repeated skirmishes and violent clashes between hostile groups and between nomads and Arab farmers. Many residents of the region fear a resurgence of violence following Unamid’s withdrawal.
