By Mohammed Amin
KHARTOUM, SUDAN (AA) – UN peacekeepers are set to complete their withdrawal from Darfur province in western Sudan on Wednesday, after 13 years in the troubled region.
The mission said in a statement on Tuesday that the Sudanese government will take over from the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) until the last soldier leaves the region.
“UNAMID will complete its drawdown on 30 June 2021, as requested by the UN Security Council resolution 2559 (2020) which ended the mission’s mandate,” the statement said.
Established in 2007 to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian assistance in Darfur, UNAMID stopped patrolling in the region on Jan. 1 after a vote by the UN Security Council to end its mandate.
According to the statement, UNAMID has recently withdrawn from 14 sites in Darfur.
“Over the past four months, UNAMID handed over 14 team sites to the government, who committed to using them for civilian purposes as in line with the Framework Agreement signed on 4 March 2021,” it added.
During UNAMID’s 13-year mandate, more than 100,000 military and police peacekeepers were contributed by dozens of countries from around the world. At its peak deployment in 2011, it had nearly 23,000 troops and police.
