The UN announced on Friday it would be suspending the handover of sites in Darfur to the control of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC).
The suspension serves as a rejection of the TMC’s call for the UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNIMAD) to hand over all of its camps to the Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese paramilitary forces which is reportedly made of militia groups accused of human rights abuses.
“We have had no choice but to suspend the handover of UNAMID sites to the Sudanese authorities until the TMC decree is rescinded,” Jean Pierre Lacroix, the UN peacekeeping chief, told the Security Council.
The Council issued a statement condemning the violence in Sudan after the Central Committee of the Sudanese Doctors said at least 11 people were killed and 20 others wounded Monday when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a faction of the army, opened fire on residents in Central Darfur state.
Sudanese protesters began a nationwide civil disobedience campaign on Sunday as part of pressures on the ruling TMC to hand over power to a civilian government.
More than 100 people have been killed since June 3 when the government forces broke up the sit-in by forces.
The TMC later promised to bring the perpetrators to the justice, vowing that it would release the results of investigation it conducts within three days.
Lacroix said that peacekeeping “is no longer the most appropriate tool” in Sudan and that UNAMID needs “to appropriately adjust its posture.”
