8101st Security Council Meeting: Report of the Secretary-General on Sudan

Security Council extends mandates of United Nations Interim Force for Abyei, Joint Border Monitoring Entity, unanimously adopting Resolution 2386 (2017) at 8101st meeting.

• Categories: Meetings & Events / Security Council
• Video Length: 00:20:48
• Production Date: 15 November 2017
• Asset Language: Arabic; Chinese; English; French; Russian; Spanish
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS INTERIM SECURITY FORCE FOR ABYEI - UNISFA
• Subject Topical: FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT; PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS; POLICE
• Geographic Subject: SUDAN; SOUTH SUDAN; ETHIOPIA
• MAMS Id: 2038044
• Parent Id: 2037750

Description

The Security Council decided this morning to extend until 15 April 2018 the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force for Abyei (UNISFA), and to limit support for the disputed territory’s border monitoring mechanism to a further five months, while awaiting implementation of measures agreed by Sudan and South Sudan.

Unanimously adopting resolution 2386 (2017), the Council also decided to maintain UNISFA’s authorized troop ceiling at 4,791, after which it would decrease to 4,235 unless the Council decided to extend the mission’s support for the Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism.

The Council warned, however, that there would be no further extensions of that Mechanism’s mandate unless the parties — no later than 15 March — facilitated full freedom of movement for UNISFA, opened the first phase of the border crossing corridor, met to discuss border demarcation and the so called “14 Mile” disputed area, cooperated in opening the Mechanism’s team sites and convened meetings of the required Joint Political and Security Mechanism to resolve such issues. The Council requested that the Secretary General submit a written assessment of actions taken to fulfil those requirements by 1 April 2018.

Speaking after the vote, the representative of the United States welcomed the mandate extensions, but expressed regret at the lack of progress on implementing agreements, including those related to the Mechanism, which had not functioned properly in the past six years. Recalling previous warnings that support would be withdrawn unless progress was accelerated, she emphasized that the Security Council could not provide resources to initiatives with which the parties themselves were not cooperating. She cited delays in granting UNISFA access to helipads and the presence of police in areas that they were prohibited from entering as examples of that lack of cooperation.

Ethiopia’s representative, also welcoming the adoption, said he would have liked to see the mandate renewed as a whole since support to the Mechanism was integral to UNISFA. Its presence had kept the peace in the Abyei area, although it fell far short of the terms to which the parties had agreed. Hopefully, momentum from recent bilateral summit meetings would foster more progress, allowing UNISFA to build further on its accomplishments.

OMER DAHAB FADL MOHAMED (Sudan) paid tribute to UNISFA for having maintained peace in Abyei, underlining that his country had never opposed implementation of obligations relating to the Joint Monitoring and Verification Mechanism. There was, therefore, no reason to cease the mission’s operations. Recounting the recent summit meeting where the leaders of the two countries had discussed the issue, he called upon South Sudan to accelerate its support for the establishment of all Abyei institutions, as agreed.

In relation to the police unit that had secured oil facilities, he explained that it had been necessitated by the presence of armed groups and by the absence of a joint security force. If the implementation of agreements were completed, there would be no need for such deployments. He reiterated his country’s commitment to cooperating with UNISFA in fulfilling all its tasks, under the overall objective of maintaining the current peace until a final status agreement was reached.

AKUEI BONA MALWAL (South Sudan) also welcomed the extension of UNISFA’s mandate, hailing its accomplishments as well as Ethiopia’s contributions to the Force. “This extension comes at a time when the Republic of South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan, through their leaderships, renewed their resolves in solving any outstanding differences within the agreed channels established,” he said. Hopefully, through the mandate extension, the people of Abyei would hopefully realize lasting peace as a permanent settlement was sought under the auspices of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel.

The meeting began at 10:03 a.m. and ended at 10:24 a.m.