While moving forward with its reconfiguration efforts, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) remained focused on the implementation of its key strategic priorities, including the protection of civilians, the Security Council heard today as it took up the Secretary-General’s latest report on that mission (document S/2017/776).
On 8 September 2017, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) concerning the Sudan was briefed by the Coordinator and two members of the Panel of Experts on the Sudan in connection with the Panel’s first report, which was submitted in accordance with paragraph 2 of resolution 2340 (2017).
Filippo Grandi paid his first official visit to Sudan as High Commissioner this week, with refugees continuing to flee the brutal conflict in South Sudan. Sudan has hosted more than 416,000 South Sudanese since 2013, including some 170,000 new arrivals in 2017, as well as refugees from Eritrea, Syria, Yemen and Chad.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat today announced the appointment of Lieutenant General Leonard Muriuki Ngondi of Kenya as Force Commander for the African Union‑United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). He succeeds Lieutenant General Frank Mushyo Kamanzi of Rwanda, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedication and effective leadership as head of UNAMID’s military component.
At its sixty-sixth meeting, on 22 June 2017, the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, in connection with the examination of the fifth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Sudan (S/2017/191), covering the period from 1 March 2011 to 31 December 2016, agreed to address the following messages through a public statement issued by the Chair of the Working Group.
Recent developments at Old City holy sites in Jerusalem have shown a grave risk that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will escalate into a religious one and drag both sides into a vortex of violence with the entire region, Nickolay Mladenov, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the Security Council.
On 3 July 2017, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) concerning the Sudan held informal consultations to consider the report of the Chair’s visit to Sudan, which took place from 14 to 18 May 2017.
The Security Council today renewed the mandate of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) until 30 June 2018, while deciding to draw down the mission’s troop and police strength in that western region of Sudan over the next year.
At its eighth formal meeting, held on 16 December 2016, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) concerning the Sudan met with representatives to the United Nations of the Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya and Uganda, with the aim of continuing to strengthen the dialogue between the Committee and the invited delegations.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up emergency operations to help people urgently in need of help in Yemen, which is on the brink of famine. In Syria, WFP delivered food this week to seven hard-to-reach areas in Raqqa and Deir, where regular aid service had been suspended for over three years due to conflict.
