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Cuts to Darfur peacekeeping mission 'flagrant mistake'
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June 19 - 2017 DARFUR The news of the planned downsizing of the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (Unamid) was received among displaced people in Darfur as “a major disappointment and a flagrant mistake”.
On June 14, the African Union (AU) and the United Nations announced proposed 44 per cent and 30 per cent reductions in their troop and police presence in Darfur as a step towards an eventual exit from the conflict region. “A reduction of the number of Unamid peacekeepers will make the Darfuris more vulnerable to abuses of all kinds by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and other militias operating in the region,” the Darfur Displaced and Refugees Association commented.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the Security Council should leave flexibility for Unamid to respond to evolving threats, and strengthen the mission’s human rights monitoring and reporting capacities. Also according to the US Charge d'affaires in Sudan, Steven Koutsis, the security situation in Darfur forms an obstacle for people who want to return home. North Darfur Deputy Governor Mohamed Breima assured Koutsis during his visit to El Fasher that the state is almost free of rebels.
Meanwhile, the rebel Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi said in a letter to the Security Council that “Unamid is considered the conclusive guarantee for the protection of civilians in Darfur, particularly that the government of Sudan renews its attacks in the region.”
In late May and early June, Sudanese forces attacked, robbed and torched villages in North and East Darfur, after clashes with rebel fighters. Thousands of villagers were reportedly displaced. Unamid’s report for the first quarter of 2017 found that Sudanese government restrictions seriously hamper the peacekeepers from protecting civilians.
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Sudan Health Minister confirms chance of epidemic
June 20 - 2017 KHARTOUM / EL GEDAREF / EL GEZIRA ABA On Monday, Health Minister Bahar Idris Abugarda acknowledged that the outbreak of 'acute watery diarrhoea' in Sudan can grow into an epidemic. The Sudanese Minister of Environment, Hassan Hilal, has publicly held the Health Ministry responsible for the outbreak, which the authorities refuse to call cholera.
Abugarda said in an emergency meeting with state health ministers that of Sudan's ten affected states, White Nile has recorded most cases, followed by the northern Khartoum. In El Salam locality in White Nile more than 100 new cholera cases were reported on Thursday. A medical source told Radio Dabanga that the rate of new infections in the main towns of the state ranges between five and ten cases a day.
A report issued by the Sudanese Epidemiology Corporation revealed 65 new cholera patients at hospitals in Khartoum and sister-city Omdurman on Thursday. El Obeid Hospital in North Kordofan received one new case last week, and 33 patients are being treated in isolation centres. And the former Minister of Health of El Gedaref, Mustafa El Sayed, told Radio Dabanga that cholera has become one of the endemic diseases in El Gedaref.
Figures remain approximate as the Sudanese government has still not officially acknowledged the epidemic. On Monday the UK-Ireland section of the Sudanese Doctors’ Union called on Khartoum to officially declare the outbreak of cholera and activate the disaster protocols.
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