(United Nations) Against the backdrop of a deepening political crisis in Sudan, the United Nations Security Council on Thursday agreed to delay a drawdown of UN peacekeepers from the country’s troubled western province of Darfur. The UN’s top body had been preparing to cut back the so-called United Nations-African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) from its current size of almost 5,600 blue helmets to 4,050 before the country was hit by a wave of protests earlier this year.

That drawdown was no longer possible in the wake of the ouster of long-time president Omar al-Bashir and the switch to a Transitional Military Council (TMC) that includes the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, diplomats said.

“In order to resume the transition from peacekeeping to peacebuilding we must see progress, and in particular the Rapid Support Forces must withdraw from all former UNAMID team sites so they can be used for civilian purposes,” Britain’s deputy UN ambassador Jonathan Allen says.

“All of this should take place alongside a transition to a legitimate civilian-led government – a government which is accepted by the people of Sudan and therefore the wider international community. The RSF is led by Mohamed Dagalo, also known as Hemeti, who is deputy head of Sudan’s TMC, which assumed control after al-Bashir was ousted and detained. The RSF grew out of the Janjaweed militias that are accused of atrocities in Darfur,” he explains. “The UN’s top body voted unanimously for the document, drafted by Germany and Britain, to “extend, temporarily and exceptionally” its blue-helmet operation at its current size until October 31 “in order to maintain the mission’s self-protection capacities”.

Members also called on the African Union and UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres to study the latest developments in Sudan and report back about scaling back UNAMID by the end of September. France’s ambassador to the UN, Francois Delattre, urged Sudan’s military leaders to hand power to civilians as soon as possible, condemning the violence against protestors and noted how Darfur remained unstable. He explains:

We are deeply concerned by the increasing tensions and acts of violence in Darfur, and call on the international community to do everything in its power to ensure that this region, which remains very fragile, does not re-ignite.

“UNAMID therefore retains an important role. It is essential that the mission is temporarily maintained to ensure the protection of civilians and the reporting of violations of human rights, to promote the settlement of inter-community conflicts and facilitate humanitarian access.”

UNAMID has been deployed in Darfur since 2007, with a mandate to tackle violence against villagers amid fighting that saw the International Criminal Court issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on charges of genocide and war crimes. Al-Bashir is accused of masterminding attacks by Janjaweed militias and atrocities in Darfur, after mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms in 2003 against the Arab-led government in Khartoum, accusing it of discrimination.

As diplomats met in New York, Sudan’s political crisis was spiralling. This week, opposition activists announced plans for more demonstrations after the country’s ruling generals rejected an Ethiopian plan for a transitional government. On Thursday, security forces reportedly fired tear gas to break up dozens of students protesting against the ruling military council at a financial academy in the centre of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

Sudan’s military chiefs and an opposition coalition have been grappling for weeks over what form a transitional government should take, after the generals ousted and detained long-time president al-Bashir on April 11. Talks between the two sides collapsed after security forces — understood to be Hemeti’s RSF — stormed a protest sit-in on June 3, killing dozens of demonstrators and prompting outrage from world powers. Activists who led months of protests against al-Bashir have called for a million-strong march on Sunday to try to revive street pressure on the military council and call for it to cede power to civilians.

L'articolo UN Delays Blue Helmet Drawdown Amid Sudan Chaos proviene da InsideOver.

(Cairo) Thirteen demonstrators were killed and dozens of others injured in the early hours of June 3rd, when units of the Sudanese army moved to disperse a protest camp outside the army command in downtown Khartoum, Sudan’s capital city.

Hundreds of army troops, some using rifles and machine guns, broke into the sit-in site and used violence to disperse the gathering, mainly staged by Sudan’s political forces and professional unions.

Sudanese army vehicles entered the site and removed the tents of the demonstrators, who ran for their lives, seeking refuge as army troops, some holding sticks and batons, cleared it.

“We are entering a totally new phase now with this violence,” said Ibrahim al-Amin, the deputy head of Sudan’s centrist National Umma Party.

True, the regime has fallen down on the surface, but its core remains intact

The sit-in outside the general army command on Nile Street in Khartoum started in mid-April, soon after the ousting of longtime president Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Bashir was forced out of power by the Sudanese army, after three decades as president of Sudan, following months of demonstrations by the general public. The demonstrations broke out against the background of deteriorating economic conditions, the lack of services and the widening scope of poverty.

The Sudanese army command took a semi-neutral stance during most of the demonstrations, masquerading as the people’s protector and the revolution’s guardian.

The Transitional Military Council (TMC), which was formed following Bashir’s downfall, started negotiations with the country’s political forces and professional unions on the topics of the transitional phase and the handover of power to civilians.

Nonetheless, today’s violence does away with almost all prior understandings reached between the council and the opposing political forces, Sudanese analysts have said.

“Some people in the military council have probably wanted to bring the negotiations to a halt by initiating this violence,” said Sudanese political analyst Mohamed al-Nayyer. “They wanted things to return to square one.”

However, the peace that emerged between the army command and the demonstrators has ended, with little chance of returning.

Sudan’s political forces and professional union, which have been leading most of the negotiations with the Transitional Military Council, have called for a nationwide strike.

They have called on Sudanese citizens across the  nation to go out to the streets to join in with the protesters, and bring the military council down.

The political forces also said they would suspend negotiations with the military council and start a real struggle to force the council to hand power over to civilians.

Today’s violence was expected, as gaps between the military council and the demonstrators on the streets kept widening over the past weeks.

On May 14, four demonstrators and an army officer were killed in clashes inside the main protest site outside the army command.

On May 28, the Deputy Head of the Transitional Military Council, Mohamed Osaman Daqlo, said that some of the demonstrators on Sudan’s streets were paid by foreign powers to protract Sudan’s political crisis.

On June 1, Daqlo said handing power over to civilians would mean nothing for Sudan but “chaos”.

Things are still evolving, and reactions to today’s violence from both inside and outside Sudan are still pouring. Those closely watching developments in this country say more violence can occur in the coming days, with the situation between Sudan’s military rulers and the political forces reaching what can be seen as a dead-end.

“The violence does not augur well for the future course of Sudan,” Nayyer said. “If anything, today’s violence means that things will never return to how they were before June 3rd.”

L'articolo Sudan Protests: 13 Killed by Army in bid to Quash Public Dissent proviene da InsideOver.