Sudan asks UN to shut Khartoum office in row over abuse claims
Relations between UN mission in Darfur and government deteriorate over attempts to investigate mass-rape claims
Sudan has asked the United Nations to close its human rights office in Khartoum after accusing its peacekeepers of abuses, the UN-African Union has announced.
Ties between the UN mission in Darfur (Unamid) and the government have deteriorated over the mission’s attempts to investigate reports that government troops raped 200 women and girls in the Darfur village of Tabit last month.
Unamid said it had received a formal request from the Sudan government on 23 November to close the mission’s human rights office in the capital.
The mission “has always had a liaison office” that includes a human rights section, its press department said. It added that it was “working to clarify” the situation with the government.
Sudan’s foreign ministry confirmed it had asked the office to close, saying its role was “outside of their mandate”.
But spokesman Yousif al-Kordofani said the ministry and Unamid had exchanged letters about the issue before the Tabit affair.
The ministry also hit out at Unamid on Tuesday, accusing its peacekeepers of “worrying abuses and violations”, including rape, in Darfur during the years of its mandate.
“We observed incidents in which Unamid soldiers raped women and the mission took no measures to hold them accountable and did not make them leave the country” Abdullah al-Azraq, under-secretary for the foreign minister, said in a statement run by state news agency Suna.
He did not elaborate further and the UN-AU mission did not immediately comment.
The mission was set up in 2007 to protect civilians and secure aid to Darfur, which has been wracked by conflict since 2003 when ethnic insurgents rebelled against the government.
Relations between the mission and Khartoum have soured over Unamid’s attempts to investigate a report from a local news website that soldiers raped 200 women and girls in Tabit on 31 October.
When Unamid visited Tabit it found no evidence of rapes but an internal report said Sudanese soldiers had intimidated villagers to quash the allegations as the peacekeepers investigated.
Khartoum summoned Unamid’s acting head and said last week it had asked the mission to form an “exit strategy”.
The foreign ministry denied on Tuesday that the move was motivated by the alleged attack in Tabit, but said it had been under discussion for years.
In a separate statement published by SSuna, Azraq said Darfur’s prosecutor general had finished his own investigations in Tabit and concluded that there was no proof or evidence to back up the report.
The conflict in the vast Darfur region of western Sudan has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced 2 million, the UN says.
President Omar al-Bashir is wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes in the region.
Ties between the UN mission in Darfur (Unamid) and the government have deteriorated over the mission’s attempts to investigate reports that government troops raped 200 women and girls in the Darfur village of Tabit last month.
Unamid said it had received a formal request from the Sudan government on 23 November to close the mission’s human rights office in the capital.
The mission “has always had a liaison office” that includes a human rights section, its press department said. It added that it was “working to clarify” the situation with the government.
Sudan’s foreign ministry confirmed it had asked the office to close, saying its role was “outside of their mandate”.
But spokesman Yousif al-Kordofani said the ministry and Unamid had exchanged letters about the issue before the Tabit affair.
The ministry also hit out at Unamid on Tuesday, accusing its peacekeepers of “worrying abuses and violations”, including rape, in Darfur during the years of its mandate.
“We observed incidents in which Unamid soldiers raped women and the mission took no measures to hold them accountable and did not make them leave the country” Abdullah al-Azraq, under-secretary for the foreign minister, said in a statement run by state news agency Suna.
He did not elaborate further and the UN-AU mission did not immediately comment.
The mission was set up in 2007 to protect civilians and secure aid to Darfur, which has been wracked by conflict since 2003 when ethnic insurgents rebelled against the government.
Relations between the mission and Khartoum have soured over Unamid’s attempts to investigate a report from a local news website that soldiers raped 200 women and girls in Tabit on 31 October.
When Unamid visited Tabit it found no evidence of rapes but an internal report said Sudanese soldiers had intimidated villagers to quash the allegations as the peacekeepers investigated.
Khartoum summoned Unamid’s acting head and said last week it had asked the mission to form an “exit strategy”.
The foreign ministry denied on Tuesday that the move was motivated by the alleged attack in Tabit, but said it had been under discussion for years.
In a separate statement published by SSuna, Azraq said Darfur’s prosecutor general had finished his own investigations in Tabit and concluded that there was no proof or evidence to back up the report.
The conflict in the vast Darfur region of western Sudan has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced 2 million, the UN says.
President Omar al-Bashir is wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes in the region.