The Final Departure of the Blue Helmets from the Darfur Region What does it mean?
الرحيلالنهائيلذوىالخوذاتالزرقاءمنإقليمدارفورماذايعني؟
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
This article comes against the backdrop of the UNSC decision on Wednesday the 23rd December 2020 to END and Withdraw the UN Mission to Darfur known as UNAMID from the Darfur region in the western Sudan under the banner of: “The UN Security Council ends tasks of “UNAMID””. https://www.alhurra.com/sudan/2020/12/23/%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A-%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%87%D9%8A-%D9%85%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%AF
It seems that there are no mourners on the occasion of the final departure of UNAMID from the Darfur region in western Sudan other than those remained languishing under the woes of the recidivist Criminals who use armed robbery as a Profession and kill peaceful citizens without mercy or shedding tears for them. Furthermore, those beasts remain fugitive from legal accountability and punishment. As everyone knows that the decision to withdraw UNAMID from the Darfur region did not come today as a surprise, and we can at this moment quickly refer to some of them as well as the reasons for the decision.
By 2008, the United Nations estimated the victims of the Darfur war at 300,000 dead, 2.5 million internally displaced and a quarter of a million refugees in Chad.
United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur was deployed on19 November 2009.AS to the questionwhy did the UN fail in Darfur? Mr. Ladsous said the UN force was operating in a “very difficult environment” because of the large number of armed groups and bandits in Darfur. Co-operation from the Sudanese government had also been “spotty”, Mr. Ladsous said. A strategic review had been carried out to tackle the problems the UN was facing in Darfur.
UN peacekeepers failed to protect civilians in Sudan’s Darfur region, even when they were shot in front of them, a former UN spokeswoman has said.
Aicha el Basri told the BBC UN chief Ban Ki-moon was part of a “conspiracy of silence” about the conflict.
She said she resigned last year because she “felt ashamed to be a spokesperson for a mission that lies”.
Responding, a UN official said the mission was doing a “brave” job and reported “faithfully on what we know”.
“Yes, there have been incidents, some of them dramatic, some of them shocking. Every one of them has been investigated to the best of our ability,” UN peacekeeping head Herve Ladsous told the BBC.
The UN has about 19,000 troops in Darfur, which has been hit by conflict since 2003.
‘Cynical farce’
In a BBC Focus on Africa interview, Ms Basri said she had decided to speak out after the UN ignored her appeals for an investigation into its operations in Darfur.
“In many circumstances, the civilians were shot in front of UNAMID [the UN force in Darfur],” she said.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-26962187
9 In April 2014, Aicha el Basri told the BBC UN chief Ban Ki-moon was part of a “conspiracy of silence” about the conflict.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-26962187
Dr. Aisha al-Basri, a former spokesperson for the UNAMID mission, said that the Sudanese government informed the United Nations that it had disarmed the Janjaweed while it had integrated them into its official government forces under the names of the Border Guards, and the Popular Defense Forces since at least 2005, which constitutes a flagrant violation of Security Council Resolution 1556 of 2015 and the 2004 Judge to disarms Janjaweed in Darfur and prosecute their leaders. https://www.dabangasudan.org/ar/all-news/article/%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%B4%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D8%B1%D8%B7%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%87%D9%83%D8%AA-%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%86-%D9%88%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B2%D8%B9-%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%AF-1
As for the size of the UNAMID personnel size is as follows:
4,005 military personnel, 480 police advisers, 1631 formed police unit officers, 483 international civilian staff, 64 United Nations volunteers, and 945 national civilian staff.https://unamid.unmissions.org/unamid-facts-and-figures
Since the deployment of the United Nations and African Union Mission (UNAMID) in the Darfur region of western Sudan in late 2007, 64 soldiers and police from the peacekeeping force have been killed.
A coordination of Internally Displaced People (IDPs),in Darfur have reported to have called for sit-ins to protest UNAMID’s exit.https://sudantribune.com/spip.php?article70264
Who will protect the people of Darfur after the blue hats come out? While early media reports describe the ongoing incidents as “tribal clashes”, locals allege state-supported militants are the main perpetrators of the violence and have accused the local government of complicity. https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/1/3/militias-in-sudans-darfur-kill-scores-displace-thousands
As we know that the Sudanese political parties and the armed movements have signed the final peace agreement in Juba, the Capital of the State of South Sudan on October 03.10.2020 under the auspices of the Republic of South Sudan led by the General Salva Kiir Mayardit and accordingly it was thought there would be no further organised warfare in the Darfur region. It is also thought that guns will be silenced and the rebel factions will abide by the outcome of the Juba accord for the Sudan’s peace finally signed in the presence of the international and regional attendees. However, it is noteworthy that two factions from the armed struggle movements, namely led by Abdelwahid Mohmed Ahmed al-Nour and Abdelaziz al-Hilo absented themselves from the signing of the Final Peace. Despite the foregoing, the Darfur region is expected to be away from the insurgency by the former Darfuri armed factions. This will prove true given the expected deployment of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance political Mission (UNITAMS) in the Sudan.https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/unitams/2347570
The failure of the UNAMID to protect the Sudanese civilian citizens in Darfur has been raised for quite a time when people asked as to what is the point of Peacekeepers when they do not keep the peace? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/17/un-united-nations-peacekeepers-rwanda-bosnia
The exit of the UNAMID has not come as a surprise, given the announcement of the establishment of a new mission known as United Nations Integrated Transitional Assistance Mission (UNITAMS) as early as 05.06. 2020.
Statement on the establishment of a new United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance political Mission (UNITAMS) in the Sudan
https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/unitams/2347570
It is also made known that Sudan has begun to replace the UNAMID by National Troops as said by an official.
https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-has-begun-replace-unamid-national-troops-official
The Charter of the United Nations was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, and came into force on 24 October 1945. The Statute of the International Court of Justice is an integral part of the Charter; Under the Banners of Peace, Dignity, and Equality on a Healthy Planet
https://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/introductory-note/index.html
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA the British statesman, army officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955, has been quoted as saying: “The United Nations was set up not to get us to heaven, but only to save us from hell.” https://www.google.com/search?q=quotes+about+the+united+nations&sxsrf=ALeKk01KRzN46NXcrp93DJHGZEcUNnleog:1608999805218&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=i5iTEoJ_b5L0ZM%252CXw9XOQwEWnNfQM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kRN83GdKyCvbG-llUzo9OtE5hf0Tg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiBtNWuh-ztAhUXhlwKHe_1B6kQ9QF6BAgIEAE#imgrc=z8330l4HCTduLM
Whereas, “A United Nations that will not stand up for human rights is a United Nations that cannot stand up for itself”.
Kofi Atta Annan who was a Ghanaian diplomat and who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006 and were the UN co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize has been quoted as saying: “A United Nations that will not stand up for human rights is a United Nations that cannot stand up for itself.”https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk01pDl8yBZY2feT6P-WQquwryRQcmA%3A1609000139076&ei=y2TnX4-XBNTB8gK72JrwBw&q=Kofi+Annan&oq=Kofi+Annan&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzINCC4QsQMQyQMQQxCTAjICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIAFD2_B5Y9vweYJWJH2gAcAB4AIABhQGIAYUBkgEDMC4xmAEAoAECoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpesABAQ&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjPqO7NiOztAhXUoFwKHTusBn4Q4dUDCA0&uact=5
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela who was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 as the country’s first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election has been quoted as saying: “It is not beyond our power to create a world in which all children have access to a good education”. https://www.azquotes.com/quote/844179
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/