S/PV.9288 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 Harold Adlai Agyeman, Permanent Representative of Ghana, in his capacity as Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005), concerning the Sudan. I now give the floor to Ambassador Agyeman.

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 7 December to today. During the reporting period, the Committee issued its annual report for the year 2022, which is available on the Committee’s website. It held informal consultations and received and considered the final report and the third and last quarterly updates of the Panel of Experts on the Sudan. The Panel of Experts on the Sudan submitted its final report to the Committee in December 2022. The Committee members discussed the content of the report presented by the Panel of Experts on 6 February during informal consultations. Following the Committee’s discussions, the Committee considered the Panel’s recommendations and follow-up actions. The Panel’s final report was made publicly available on 7 February 2023. On that same day, the Committee received the Panel’s third quarterly update, and on 10 March, the Committee received the last quarterly update from the Panel. In all its reports, the Panel provided substantial information on the Juba Peace Agreement implementation process, the regional situation, the status of armed groups and the protection of civilians. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Government of the Sudan for extending its full cooperation to the Panel during the past mandates. I would also like to take this opportunity to reiterate that the sanctions regime was established for the sole purpose of helping to bring peace to Darfur. It is not 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 Agyeman for his briefing. I now give the floor to the representative of the Sudan.

At the outset, I would like to sincerely congratulate you, Mr. President, for your friendly country’s assumption of the Security Council presidency for this month. We are confident that you will lead the Council’s work in an able manner. The position of the Sudan with regard to the sanctions imposed under resolution 1591 (2005) is clear and well known. The records of the Security Council attest to that. Those sanctions were imposed in a political and security context that was different. At the time, there was an internal conflict in Darfur which no longer exists. Darfur is now undergoing an important transition from peacekeeping to peacebuilding with the participation of the Transitional Government and stakeholders of the peace process that signed the Juba Peace Agreement. Thanks to those efforts, significant peace and stability are now prevailing in Darfur. Displaced persons have started to voluntarily return to their villages, which they were compelled to leave during the height of the armed conflict in 2003. The Transitional Government is implementing the National Plan for the Protection of Civilians, which was presented to the Council in April 2021 We will continue to provide the Council with regular periodic reports on the implementation of that plan. Having said that, we are aware that the situation is not ideal. There are inter-communal conflicts which sometimes are due to competition about grazing. The main reason for those conflicts is climate change and its consequences. In his autobiography, entitled Resolved: Uniting Nations in a Divided World, the previous Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, stated the following about the conflict in Darfur: (spoke in English) “It was understood to be a religious and ethnic conflict, but I believe the hostilities were based on competition for natural resources.” (p. 119) (spoke in Arabic) The Sudan is working to resolve those challenges through reconciliation, strengthening peaceful coexistence, deploying a joint force for civilian protection, strengthening the rule of law and promoting reparative justice and its institutions. Resolution 1591 (2005) and subsequent Council resolutions on the sanctions imposed on the Sudan are no longer effective and have become counterproductive, as they undermine the security enforcement agencies in Darfur and prevent them from undertaking their duties to maintain peace, stability and societal harmony. That encourages cross-border armed groups to carry out their activities. Resolution 1591 (2005) in particular was drafted without including a sunset clause like other Council resolutions. That is why that resolution has been used over the past 18 years as a sword of Damocles hanging over the Sudan. Its catastrophic consequences were never assessed objectively by the Council. Moreover, the Sudan has been increasingly feeling that, rather than achieving security and stability in Darfur, as was its objective, the resolution has become a tool for certain Council members to exercise political pressure against the Sudan and its sovereign national decisions. That requires serious consideration by Council members, so that sanctions do not become a tool used by some States to serve their own agendas and foreign policies. Six members of the Council have asked for the lifting of sanctions, including two permanent members, namely, Russia and China. The Arab groups, comprising 22 countries, the African groups, comprising 54 countries, and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, comprising 57 countries, have also asked for the lifting of those sanctions. The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries has also supported that request. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the friendly countries who have taken objective stances while negotiating resolution 2676 (2023), adopted by the Security Council on 8 March. I also thank the three African members of the Security Council, Gabon, Ghana and Mozambique, along with the United Arab Emirates for their tough negotiations as they supported the Sudan’s request to include in the resolution a timeframe similar to those in other Council resolutions. They also requested realistic, objective, applicable and measurable criteria that were supported by the majority of Council members. The negotiations on that resolution have demonstrated that the Council is divided over its content. The countries that were realistic mostly come from the South. We would also mention Brazil and its positive role. Such countries understand better the complex nature of the situation in certain countries that are in the process of transition, including the Sudan. Those friendly countries have no political agendas that affect their position in the Council. We appreciate those countries because they stressed in a practical manner their commitment to reforming the working methods of the Security Council. We hope that the penholders will adopt the same position in order to not have double standards, turn pens into swords or reduce the size of the Sudan, as the bandit Procrustes did in Greek mythology. He would force his victims to lie on his bed and cut off the parts of their legs that hung off the bed. In conclusion, we appeal to the Council to free the Sudan from the burden and injustice of Procrustes’ bed.