S/PV.9210 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. At this meeting, the Council will hear a briefing by Ambassador Carolyn Oppong-Ntiri, Deputy Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations, on behalf of the Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) concerning the Sudan. I now give the floor to Ambassador Oppong-Ntiri.

In accordance with paragraph 3 (a) (iv) of resolution 1591 (2005), I have the honour to brief the Security Council on the work of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) concerning the Sudan, covering the period from 13 September to today. During the reporting period, the Committee received the second quarterly report of the Panel of Experts on the Sudan. The Panel updated us on the implementation process of the Juba Peace Agreement, the regional situation, the status of armed groups and the protection of civilians. The Panel is currently conducting its investigations in the Sudan, including in Darfur. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Government of the Sudan for extending its full cooperation to the Panel. I also want to reiterate that the sanctions regime was established for the sole purpose of helping to bring peace to Darfur. It is not intended to punish the Sudan but to support the attainment of sustainable peace. The 1591 Committee reiterates its commitment to working together with the Sudan and all relevant stakeholders to make that a reality.

I thank Ambassador Oppong-Ntiri for her briefing. I now give the floor to the representative of the Sudan.

I would like to congratulate you, Madam President, on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for the month of December, and to express our confidence in your wise stewardship of its work. We also appreciate the work of Ghana during its presidency of the Council last month. We took note of the report of the Secretary-General issued on 31 July 2021 entitled “Review of the situation in Darfur and benchmarks to assess the measures on Darfur” (S/2021/696), which included coverage of the visit from 12 to 26 June 2021 of a Secretariat assessment team to the Sudan, specifically the cities of Khartoum, Nyala and El Fasher, in addition to South Darfur and North Darfur and the Kass, Kalma and Abu Shouk camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). The team also consulted with the Transitional Government and the parties to the Juba Peace Agreement, as well as political parties, civil-society organizations and women’s and youth groups, in addition to assessment teams and the Panels of Experts on the Sudan, the Central African Republic, Libya and South Sudan. It arrived at the following conclusions. First, the situation in Darfur had improved since July 2004 in the wake of the glorious revolution of December 2018 and positive developments such as the political agreement on establishing the structures and institutions of the transitional period and the Constitutional Declaration signed in 2019 by the Freedom and Change Forces and the Transitional Military Council, as well as the adoption of a national plan of action for the protection of civilians in May 2020 and the signing of the Juba Peace Agreement in October 2020. The Juba Peace Agreement is considered to represent the best opportunity to achieve comprehensive and sustainable peace, along with a permanent ceasefire, and includes protocols on power- sharing, a permanent ceasefire, security arrangements and addressing the root causes of conflict in Darfur. That was followed by the creation of a security-keeping force in the region to curb the flow of weapons from neighbouring countries. The assessment team also maintained that issues related to land, water and the climate and environment were major factors fuelling the conflict, owing to their impact on tribal communities, nomads, herders, farmers, IDPs and refugees. While it is true that from time to time we have witnessed intercommunal conflicts due to those factors, they are not politically driven — in fact, the motives behind some of them are criminal in nature. The security situation in Darfur has improved significantly, to the extent that the mandate of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur was terminated. While transboundary militias still have a presence, and adverse effects of the security situation in the region continue, in our view peace cannot be quantified by an ideal index of a total absence of violence. While certain countries may call for that, in our view it is a utopian request that humankind has failed to achieve since Adam’s fall from Eden. Resolution 1591 (2005) has been overtaken by current developments on the ground, especially now that the war in Darfur has come to a total halt. However, political and security challenges continue while the Transitional Government is making significant efforts to achieve security and peace in the region, foremost among them through the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement, in collaboration with partners in the peace process, which is key to establishing peace. In that context, we call on the international community to honour its pledges to support the peace process in Darfur. The dynamics of the peace process were enhanced through significant progress in reconciliation among the tribes in West and South Darfur in recent months, thanks to the efforts of the Vice-President of the Sovereignty Council. Those efforts led to the success achieved in strengthening the presence of State institutions and the rule of law, addressing land disputes and the return of displaced persons and refugees to their villages and purchasing the equipment needed with the limited national resources available in order to improve the security situation. The report of the Secretary-General on the situation in the Sudan and the activities of United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan (S/2022/898) recognizes the significant positive impact of the reconciliation agreements, which have contributed to enhancing stability and security in the region. With regard to the objectives set out in the report, we note that most of them are unquantifiable and unimplementable. They do not concern Darfur since they address national issues, such as political and economic governance objectives and the formation of the Joint Supreme Council for Security Arrangements to address disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. They should be limited only to the regional context. A number of paragraphs refer to advancing and accelerating the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement. However, there is no mention in the report of the reluctance of donors to honour their pledges, or of the sanctions related to Darfur, which need to be reassessed pursuant to the paragraph 1 of resolution 2620 (2022), which provides for introducing amendments to or suspensions of, or else eliminating altogether or phasing out, the sanctions, based on the current situation and in view of the positive political developments and the tireless efforts being made to form a new civilian Government. The resolution is limited to the security situation in Darfur and delegating a Panel of Experts to monitor progress implies that its mandate should be expanded to include monitoring and reporting on the developments of the political and security situation in the Sudan. The Sudan continues its efforts to implement its national plan for the protection of civilians, including the establishment of a joint force to maintain security and ensure the protection of civilians, in collaboration with the Government and the parties that signed the Darfur Peace Agreement, as well as to address other issues. In conclusion, the Sudan stresses its support for the efforts of the United Nations, the Security Council and the international community to achieve peace in Darfur. We stand ready to continue our constructive cooperation to that end. The Sudan calls on the Security Council to respond to its repeated requests to end the mandate of the independent Panel of Experts established by resolution 1591 (2005) and to end the sanctions by March 2023, given that the reasons for which they were established no longer exist.