S/PV.7878 Security Council

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/2017/109, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by the United States of America. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2017/22, which contains a letter dated 9 January 2017 from the Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) concerning the Sudan addressed to the President of the Security Council. 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.

The draft resolution received 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2340 (2017). I now give the floor to the representative of the Sudan.

I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for giving me the opportunity to address the Security Council, and I congratulate you on your assumption of the presidency of the Council for this month. I would also like to thank your predecessor, the Permanent Representative of Sweden, for his able leadership of the Council last month. I also thank the United States delegation for paving the way to unanimity today on resolution 2340 (2017), on the annual renewal of the mandate laid down in resolution 1591 (2005). I would like to welcome the new Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, and I look forward to meeting with her one on one in the near future. I am grateful to the members of the Council for the opportunity to discuss the content of today’s resolution, and for taking our views into consideration and incorporating them into the text, despite the fact that some of our recommendations were not taken into account. I would like to thank you, Mr. President, in your capacity as Chair of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) concerning the Sudan, for your work in coordinating the unanimous adoption of today’s resolution. Resolution 2340 (2017) considers the security, humanitarian and political aspects of the situation in Darfur, noting in the fifth preambular paragraph that except in the Jebel Marra region, the conflict and the forms it has taken have subsided. Jebel Marra, an important region of our country, is in Central Darfur, one of five Darfuri states. The drop in the level of conflict in Darfur should have resulted in the lifting of sanctions and organization of the exit of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). It has been 12 years since the Council’s adoption of resolution 1591 (2005). The Sudan saw periods of respite and of escalation in the area up until 2011, when the parties to the conflict reached a peaceful negotiated settlement under the auspices of the United Nations, the African Union, the League of Arab States, Qatar and other peace partners. As the reports on the work of UNAMID have noted, the situation in Darfur has been gradually improving year by year, as members of the Council past and present have acknowledged. Resolution 2340 (2017) includes preambular and operative paragraphs from previous resolutions. It is time that this situation were rectified and an end put to any mention of condemnation and contentious issues that have nothing to do with the reality on the ground. The report of the Panel of Experts (S/2017/22, annex) notes that the remaining armed groups are self- funding through neighbouring countries by resorting to mercenary acts, trafficking in persons, hostage-taking and forced taxation. The Council’s resolutions must denounce such actions just as the international community condemns them through its international conventions and resolutions. The confidential report of the Panel of Experts was leaked before it was presented to the Sanctions Committee and before it had been made public. We notified the Committee of that dangerous incident in April 2016. We do not yet know if an entity to investigate that issue has been established. We are aware that the issue of access to Darfur’s various regions — Central Darfur in particular — has been raised in previous reports issued on the situation in Darfur. The Council knows that we have taken every opportunity and made every effort to brief it on events on the ground, while noting that, as stated by a high- ranking UNAMID official last year and acknowledged by other United Nations officials, access has now been granted to all areas in Darfur. In that regard, we note the joint mission carried out by United Nations entities and representatives of the Government of the Sudan to Central Darfur between 8 and 13 December 2016, along with their first-hand accounts of events on the ground. During the period under review, we issued a national action plan to prevent the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict in March 2016. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict was present for the signing of the Plan. The action plan has sought to complement the Darfur peace process and to ensure the transition to peace. We thank our partners, including United Nations entities in New York and Khartoum, especially UNICEF and its Executive Director, Mr. Anthony Lake, for focusing especially on this issue and for commending our efforts. We thank the Council for noting that important development in resolution 2340 (2017). We expect the Security Council and the General Assembly, as well as the Secretary-General and the Secretariat, to make every effort to defend the Darfur peace agreement that was signed in July 2011 and stress its precedence. We should not forget that the Justice and Equality Movement chose to withdraw from negotiations from the beginning. The Government of the Sudan has agreed to the request of the United Nations, the African Union and the League of Arab States to prevent the Movement from returning to the negotiation table. From a political, legal and technical perspective, the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur is one of the world’s most important peace agreements for addressing an internal conflict. Attaining peace in Darfur should not depend on any one party or individual. All individuals who hinder peace should be held to the obligations of international law. We hope that the Council will carry out its responsibility in denouncing and punishing all those who obstruct peace and prolong the suffering of the people in Darfur, in particular the leader of the Sudanese Liberation Army-Abdul Wahid faction. My country welcomes the Panel of Experts and we stress our readiness to cooperate with it. We hope that the Panel will abide by its mandate and uphold transparency and impartiality. We hope that it will rely on credible information and that its reports would reflect the situation on the ground in Darfur in support of the country’s peace process.