Sudan Takes Over Security After UN Forces Leave Darfur

Deployed in 2007, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (Unamid) was tasked with bringing peace to a region where conflict had broken out a few years earlier when local armed groups rose against the government of Omar al-Bashir, whom it accused of oppression. June 30, 2021 was the last day for the Unamid to complete the phase-out in accordance with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2559 (2020) which terminated the mandate of the Mission in December 2020.

Unamid's departure means that Khartoum, which has worked to reconcile with various armed groups, will now be in charge of overall security for the country, for the first time in 15 years. Unamid in its term had seen over 100,000 military and police peacekeepers deployed to Darfur. Its highest contingent was 23,000 troops in 2011 but by the time the mandate was terminated, it had just about 7,000 forces and civilian personnel, most of whom have left for their home countries writes Mawahib Abdallatif for The EastAfrican.