Special Representative for UNAMID on Sudan and South Sudan - Security Council Briefing

Reports by Mr. Jeremiah Nyamane Kingsley Mamabolo, Joint Special Representative for the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), on the situation in Sudan and South Sudan at the 8377th meeting of the Security Council.
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The Joint Special Representative of the UN/AU Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), Jeremiah N. Mamabolo, today (22 Oct) told the Security Council that in accordance to the Mission’s new mandate, it is working with the government as well as the UN country team in order to “facilitate collaboration for the duration of the Mission’s transition and eventual exit.”
Mamabolo told the Council that the mission is “on course to reduce the military component by 3,265 personnel by December 2018 and another 1,420 personnel by 30 June 2019.” The police component, he said, “will maintain an overall strength of 2,500 personnel” while the military component “will continue to maintain its presence in the redefined area of responsibility in the greater Jebel Marra area, focusing on traditional peacekeeping functions while maintaining the flexibility to respond in the rest of Darfur when the situation demands.”
The current security situation, Mamabolo explained, “remains relatively calm and peaceful, with the exception of pockets in the Jebel Marra area where armed conflict between Government and rebel forces continue.”
In addition, he said, “there is low-level intercommunal clashes reported,” and there has been “an increase in tensions between herders and farmers, mainly IDPs and returnees, over land and resources.”
For his part, Sudan’s Ambassador, Omer Dahab Fadl Mohamed, told the Council that “the great improvements we’ve seen in the security and humanitarian situation in all states of Darfur since 2015 made it incumbent upon the Sudanese government with the support of the international community to move Darfur from the phase of conflict to the phase of reconstruction and to forge ahead with development efforts to solidify stability.”
The Secretary-General’s report, covering 11 June to 3 October, is the first since the 13 July adoption of resolution 2429, which extended UNAMID’s mandate until 30 June 2019 with a view towards the exit of the mission on 30 June 2020, and liquidation by December 2020, provided there is no significant change in the security situation.