Johannesburg – Sudan’s transitional government is to be formed on Wednesday and will hold its first cabinet meeting on September 1.
To this end officials from the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) plan to hold talks with the Sudanese government on next month’s planned drawdown of UNAMID, the AU-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur, as part of the planned withdrawal of all peacekeepers from Darfur by the end of June 2020.
Jean Pierre Lacroix, head of the UN Department of Peace Operations, told the UN Security Council (UNSC) that once a new Sudanese cabinet had been formed, the UN would be engaging with the relevant interlocutors on a range of issues, including the planned draw-down for a transition from peacekeeping to peacebuilding, and the next steps for the Darfur peace process, the Sudan Tribune reported.
The meeting will also explore ways to support Khartoum in addressing the remaining conflict drivers in Darfur.
Sudan’s new premier, Abdallah Hamdok, says the first six months will be devoted to resolving issues with armed groups in Darfur, the Blue Nile and South Kordofan as agreed with the former military council.
Last June a reduction in troops, and the handover of UNAMID sites to the Sudanese authorities, was delayed after the military council had planned to hand the camps over to Sudan’s notorious Rapid Support Forces, which comprise former Janjaweed militia members, who were largely responsible for the genocide in Darfur and for the killing of protesters over the last year.