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Deteriorating Security Threatens to Plunge Darfur into Chaos, UN Official Says
Dec 7, 2004 United Nations
Clashes between the pro-government militias in the Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) threaten "to plunge Darfur into chaos”, a top United
Nations official warned today in a briefing to the Security Council.
The Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, urged the international community to send an unequivocal message to all Sudanese parties that violence and hostile military actions were not an acceptable means to achieving political gains.
Calling the humanitarian situation dire, Mr. Prendergast said that access to vulnerable persons in Darfur had fallen from 90 per cent to 80 per cent due to increased insecurity and the rainy season. And, in North Darfur, tens of thousands had been cut off from relief.
Both the SLM/A and, to a lesser extent, the Government, had been responsible for the recent decrease in access. The number of conflict-affected persons had risen to close to 2.3 million; and the Sudan required an estimated $ 1.5 billion, including some $ 620 million for Darfur.
“Despite some earlier gains, November was characterized by violence and a marked deterioration in the security situation,” he said
Immediately after the signing of the humanitarian and security protocols in Abuja, Nigeria on 9 November, Darfur experienced relative calm. That calm was short-lived, however, with the security situation rapidly worsening towards the end of the month. Ceasefire violations took place on both sides, and increased clashes took place between Government forces and the SLM/A.
He urged that a clear message be sent to the SLM/A to stop military actions, at least some of which appeared deliberately intended to provoke the Government into retaliation. Following the signing of the protocols, any attacks by the rebels, including those intended to settle old scores pre-dating the protocols, were in violation of the ceasefire agreement.
The armed militias, for their part, should not be allowed to take the law into their own hands by responding in kind to violence instigated by the SLM/A, he said. Indeed, the militias had become a destabilizing factor, posing a dilemma for existing mechanisms intended to deal with ceasefire violations. Those groups were not included in any of the political negotiations, nor were they signatories to the ceasefire agreement. The international community must exert equal pressure on all sides to abide by their commitments.
With the resumption on 26 November of high-level North-South talks in Naivasha, Kenya, still under way today, Mr. Prendergast, hoping that that would be the final round of talks, said that the conclusion there of a comprehensive peace agreement would have far-reaching consequences for the whole of the Sudan, providing its leaders with an historic opportunity to reverse the country’s ills. Such an agreement could provide a basis for addressing the demands of other marginalized regions of the Sudan, including Darfur.
The Council last met formally on the situation in the Sudan on 18 and 19 November in Nairobi, Kenya. At the conclusion of its two-day session there, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 1574 (2004), declaring its strong support for the efforts of the Government of the Sudan and the SLM/A to reach a comprehensive peace agreement. It also welcomed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in Nairobi on the 19th, and, extended, for a further three months and with increased staffing, the United Nations Advance Mission in Sudan (UNAMIS), which had been established by resolution 1547 (2004).
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