Why does Sudan need the UN forces when it has its own military?

Why does Sudan need the UN forces when it has its own military?

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok seems to prefer UN peacekeeping forces over the Sudanese military, which has engaged in violence along with Janjaweed militias. Engaged in negotiations with several armed groups, Sudan's transitional government has asked the United Nations Security Council to deploy a peacekeeping mission or a Special Political and Support Operation until it resolves long-standing armed conflicts in the country. 

According to the local reports, Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, suggesting the UN mission “should cover the entire territory of Sudan and its approach needs to be innovative, agile, coordinated and light”.

Hamdok’s letter comes after the Sudanese government signed an agreement with the SPLM-N rebel group, which has fought against the former dictator Omar al Bashir's rule in the Kordofan and Blue Nile regions.  The bloody conflict was rooted in discrimination against ethnic Africans with various rebel groups accusing Bashir, the dictator of three decades, of sowing the seeds of hatred and fanning ethnic tensions to maintain his grip on power. The conflict not only in Darfur but in the Blue Nile and Kordofan states left thousands dead and millions displaced.

Sudan’s transitional government sees that building peace across the country is key to unlocking its potential and improving the country’s weak economy, which has been crippled by US sanctions. Hamdok’s UN request, however, raises questions about whether it is the latest episode in the internal rift between the civilian bloc and military members of the council.

Hamdok seems to prefer UN peacekeeping forces to the Sudanese military to sustain peace in regions where the military has previously waged a bloody war along with Janjaweed militias.  “It's possible that Hamdok might have more faith in UN peacekeepers than in parts of the Sudanese security forces,” Mark Weston, a writer and policy consultant based in Sudan, told TRT World.

Also speaking to TRT World, Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said Hamdok’s request for the UN mission is "part of a strategy to enlist any and all outside support in helping to stabilize and rebuild the country and to engage former enemies as allies”.

Hudson said Hamdok, an experienced politician, knows “how to tap into many avenues of financial and technical assistance that the UN offers to countries in transition, like Sudan”.

Signing a power-sharing deal with the military leaders who ousted Bashir following the month-old nationwide protests, the civilian bloc agreed to form a transitional council to run the country for three years in last August with the military. 

However, the civilian bloc, led by Hamdok, maintains its suspicion of the generals who it accused of “stealing the revolution” when the civilians demanded the end of Bashir rule and democratic Sudan.

The head of Sudan’s ruling council, Abdel Fattah al Burhan’s secret meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the cracks between the two blocs. Burhan and Netanyahu agreed to normalise ties between Israel and Sudan, the two countries which cut their relations over the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

When Israeli media reported the meeting, it stirred controversy in Sudan. Senior Sudanese officials, including Foreign Minister Asmaa Mohammed Abdullah, said the council was not consulted and she learned of the meeting through the media.

While the military supported Burhan by saying that the meeting was in “the highest interests of national security and of Sudan”, Hamdok criticised him saying Burhan violated the power-sharing deal and that foreign policy decisions must be taken by the council, not by individuals.

“Hamdok gently but publicly reprimanded Burhan over that meeting, which went against the constitutional agreement,” Weston said. Although Hamdok’s remarks publicly showed the distrust between the civilian and military sides of the council, Weston said the row “is nothing new”.

However, the polarisation within Sudan’s transitional council might jeopardise the country’s democratisation process. “How to secure civilian control over the government and the security forces has always been the key challenge for the transitional government,” Weston said.  And he concludes: “Maybe that Hamdok sees having the UN on board as a way of furthering this objective.”

UN EXTENDS PEACEKEEPING MISSION IN SOUTH SUDAN

UN EXTENDS PEACEKEEPING MISSION IN SOUTH SUDAN

The UN Security Council has extended the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in South Sudan until March 2018, pending a review of its operations. The UN Secretary-General’s most recent report on the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) recommended that the mandate be extended for two months, awaiting the completion of an ongoing strategic review of operations.

In a meeting to discuss the situation of South Sudan on Thursday, the UNSC members unanimously adopted Resolution 2392 of 2017 that also authorized the mission to use all necessary means to carry out its tasks as set out in Resolution 2327 of last year.

The 15-member organ called on the government of South Sudan to live by its commitment to cooperating fully with UNMISS. It further condemned actions against United Nations and humanitarian workers and civilians.

The UNSC emphasized the UNMISS mandate to investigate abuses of human rights and humanitarian law, and reiterated that perpetrators of violations must be held accountable. The current extended mandate will run until 15th March 2018.

Last month, South Sudan’s Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Dr.Martin Elia Lomoro, said the government wants the UNMISS mandate to focus on governance, capacity building and development rather than protection of civilians. South Sudan’s power struggle which denigrated into armed conflict entered its fifth year this month.

DRASTIC CUTS TO DARFUR MISSION MISGUIDED SAYS UNITED NATIONS

DRASTIC CUTS TO DARFUR MISSION MISGUIDED SAYS UNITED NATIONS

New York — A planned reduction of peacekeeping troops in Darfur risks leaving civilians without much-needed protection in the face of continued violence, Human Rights Watch said today. The United Nations Security Council, which has to renew the mandate for the African Union/United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) before the end of June 2017, should ensure the mission continues to protect civilians from the full range of threats they face, including outside of the greater Jebel Marra area, where they intend to establish a presence.

When deciding how quickly to reduce the size of the force, the Security Council should leave flexibility for the mission to respond to evolving threats, and strengthen the mission's human rights monitoring and reporting capacities.

"The planned cuts reflect a false narrative about Darfur's war ending," said Daniel Bekele, senior director for Africa advocacy at Human Rights Watch. "There is no reason to believe that government attacks on civilians and other abuses have ended since the same security forces remain in place; they have never been prosecuted for their crimes and can't be relied on to protect civilians."

Sudan's forces have carried out fewer attacks on civilians in 2017, particularly since the United States announced it would lift economic sanctions on Sudan, but violence and abuses against civilians persist. The government routinely denies peacekeepers access on the ground and refuses to issue visas to mission personnel.

In late May and early June, Sudanese forces attacked villages in northern and eastern Darfur when rebels clashed with government forces, displacing thousands of people, credible sources reported. The AU-UN mission's report for the first quarter of 2017 found an increase in human rights violations and abuses compared with the same period in 2016, and confirmed that Sudanese government restrictions seriously hamper the peacekeepers from protecting civilians.

The envisioned cuts are part of a strategic review process that began in 2014, amid Sudanese government demands that the mission come up with an exit strategy. A joint AU-UN strategic review of the mission proposed a reduction of nearly half the troops within a year, the closure of 11 bases, and the withdrawal of military forces from 7, citing improvements to the security situation. The changes would cut the military component's physical presence from 36 team sites to 18.

The military component of the peacekeeping mission currently provides protection for civilian patrols more than 250 times a day and provides escorts to aid groups more than 20 times a week. The proposed reductions are likely to limit the ability to conduct patrols and escorts, and the areas where other aid groups can provide food, medical attention, and other essential aid.

The cuts would restrict traditional peacekeeping and emergency attention to the greater Jebel Marra area, despite clear signs that civilians in other parts of the region still need protection. In 2015 and 2016, Human Rights Watch and others documented large-scale attacks by the government's Rapid Support Forces on hundreds of villages. The same forces reportedly fought rebels and attacked villages in May 2017.

About 2.7 million people remain displaced across Darfur, with over 1.6 million living in 60 camps, and hundreds of thousands as refugees in Chad. The Darfur region remains under a state of emergency. The peacekeepers' own reporting describes how intercommunal conflicts and proliferation of militia groups and prevailing lawlessness all threaten civilians. The reduction of the peacekeepers' footprint across Darfur will most likely limit needy communities' access to life-saving aid as humanitarian groups won't be able to reach areas in need without the protective presence of the peacekeeping forces, Human Rights Watch said.

The Security Council should ensure that any cuts are sequenced appropriately and still allow the peacekeepers to serve Darfur's most vulnerable people. The Security Council should also make the mission's human rights component a priority. The unit has a 43 percent vacancy rate and no staff in Khartoum since 2014, due to the government's restrictions and refusal to grant visas.

The Security Council should urge the mission, which has not issued any public human rights reports in the last year and which has been accused of covering up abuses in the past, to resume public reporting so that council members have regular updates on the situation on the ground. It should also insist that the Sudanese government expedite the visas and access it has systematically denied the peacekeepers for years.

"It's too early to talk about moving from peacekeeping to peace-building across Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of civilians confront the threat of violence every day," Bekele said. "As the recent bloodshed and displacement of civilians shows, the UN needs to recognize that a temporary lull does not signal an end of the conflict or risk to civilians."