A Chinese envoy said on Tuesday that China stands ready to play a positive role in building peace in Sudan.
"China stands ready to work with the rest of the international community in a continuous effort to play a positive role in building peace in Sudan," Dai Bing, charge d'affaires of China's permanent mission to the United Nations, told the Security Council meeting on the drawdown and closure of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), as requested in Resolution 2559.
Since 2007, China has been engaged in UNAMID as one of the first countries to contribute peacekeepers to the mission, said Dai. "In the past 13 years, around 5,000 Chinese peacekeepers have actively performed their duties. Two peacekeepers paid the ultimate price for peace and stability in Darfur."
Noting that since its inception, UNAMID has played an important role in maintaining security and stability in Darfur, Sudan, the ambassador said that as the first innovative UN-AU joint peacekeeping operation, UNAMID is a success story of UN's exploration for agile and diverse ways of supporting regional organizations in maintaining peace and security.
"China hopes that the UN will take stock and looks forward to the secretary-general's assessment report to be submitted at the end of October this year. It is hoped that UNAMID will complete its liquidation process, including asset liquidation, methodically in accordance with the financial regulations and rules of the UN, and avoid asset loss and improper disposal," Dai added.
Dai stressed that Sudanese government bears the main responsibility of protecting civilians in Darfur.
"To achieve security and stability in Darfur, it is imperative to address both the symptoms and root causes of violent conflicts by growing the economy and improving people's livelihood," he said.
Noting that due to the impact of COVID-19 and natural disasters, the security situation in Darfur remains precarious, the international community should scale up its support and investment in the peacebuilding efforts in Darfur, help improve Sudan's country-owned development capabilities, properly handle major inducing factors of violent conflict such as land distribution, and effectively improve local livelihoods.
UNAMID, which was established by the Security Council in Resolution 1769 on July 31, 2007, is one of the largest peacekeeping operations in the UN's history, and at its peak deployment in 2011, it had nearly 23,000 troops and police personnel. On Dec. 22, 2020, the Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2559 on the exit of UNAMID. The resolution decided to terminate UNAMID's mandate by Dec. 31, 2020 and requested the secretary-general to complete the withdrawal of all uniformed and civilian UNAMID personnel by June 30, except for those required for the mission's liquidation. It also requested the secretary-general to provide the Security Council with an assessment of lessons learned from UNAMID's experience no later than Oct. 31.
