S/PV.7152 Security Council

As this is the first meeting of the Security Council in the month of April 2014, I should like to take this opportunity to pay tribute, on behalf of the Council, to Her Excellency Ms. Sylvie Lucas, Permanent Representative of Luxembourg, for her service as President of the Council during the month of March. I am sure that I speak on behalf of all of the members of the Council in expressing my deep appreciation to Ambassador Lucas and her team for the great diplomatic skill and superlative performance of her delegation. Adoption of the agenda

In accordance with rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representative of the Sudan to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2014/236, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by Australia, France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2014/138, which contains the special report of the Secretary-General on the review of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur . It is my understanding that the Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it. I shall put the draft resolution to the vote now.

There were 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2148 (2014). I now give the floor to the representative of the Sudan.

At the outset, I would like to congratulate you, Madam President, and the fraternal African State of Nigeria. When we speak of peace in the Sudan we must mention the important role of Nigeria with regard to the peace process in my country, both with regard to previous negotiations between the north and the south and the Abuja process, which led to the Abuja Agreement, and recently Nigeria’s pivotal role in the political process and in supporting the implementation of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, as well as its contribution to the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), which is the subject of resolution 2148 (2014), adopted today. We have carefully considered the reports of the Secretary-General on UNAMID and we fully agree with the efforts to enhance the Mission, given the positive developments in Darfur, which require a review of UNAMID’s structure and priorities so that it serves the stabilization process and contributes to reinforcing the efforts to contain the recent tribal conflicts, which have led to a deterioration in the security situation in the Darfur region. In the special report of the Secretary-General on the review of UNAMID (S/2014/138), three scenarios were presented. With regard to the resolution just adopted and the recommendations of the review, the Government of the Sudan supports the third scenario. Our objective is for those goals  — that UNAMID’s efficiency and performance improve and that we undertake actions to include all the non-participating movements in the peace process — to be met by February 2015. I was keen to address the Council in this meeting to inform it that we launched a national dialogue in January. Our President’s call was renewed in the Um Jaras meeting held in Chad. That was the second meeting organized by Chad through the generous initiative of President Deby Itno. In that regard, we appreciate President Deby Itno’s efforts. We expressed our full support for that meeting as a regional effort to eliminate the root causes of conflict and to enhance the dialogue in Darfur to persuade all the non-signatory movements to join the peace process. That is in line with the call for a comprehensive dialogue. We affirm that such a dialogue would not exclude anyone, not even the armed movements. There are no obstacles that would impede those movements from joining the dialogue. We have currently moved from the stage of announcing the initiative to developing the practical steps to manage that dialogue. We are looking forward to next year, which is the deadline for the report reviewing the inclusion of all parties in the comprehensive political process. In conclusion, we acknowledge that there has been a deterioration in the situation recently, but that was because of the intercommunal violence. We are working to contain that violence at the regional level through the meetings held in Um Jaras and through support for the Doha process and the dialogue within Darfur. Intercommunal violence in Darfur has a long history. It is linked to land and water resources. We thank UNAMID for its efforts in that regard, which has undertaken many endeavours to contain the violence. We have so far worked on six reconciliation agreements between the tribes. Some of them were not successful, but we will continue to work to contain all conflict- based violence. We hope that this will be a pivotal year and that the Secretary-General will include indications of improvement in his next report. In that case, perhaps the Council could make recommendations as to how UNAMID could focus on reconstruction and prosperity in Darfur instead.

The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on its agenda.