UN agrees to major drawdown of Darfur peacekeeping force

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN Security Council on Thursday, June 29 agreed to a major drawdown of peacekeepers in Sudan's troubled region of Darfur after US pressure led to a $600-million cut in the UN budget for peace operations, AFP reports.

The council unanimously adopted a British-drafted resolution that will reduce the number of troops and police serving in the joint African Union-UN mission known as UNAMID by at least 30 percent.

Deployed in 2007, UNAMID has about 16,000 blue helmets on the ground who are tasked with protecting civilians in the war that Sudan's government forces and pro-Khartoum militias are waging against rebel groups.

The United Nations and African Union maintain that the Darfur conflict is winding down and that the mission -- among the costliest with a budget of over $1 billion -- should be trimmed.

Human rights groups warn that the conflict is far from over and that the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers will leave many areas of the vast Darfur region without international protection.

"We recognize that the situation in Darfur remains fragile," said British Deputy Ambassador Peter Wilson, but he added that the situation had "evolved" and that the changes reflected "the current reality."

The council agreed to a gradual reduction of UNAMID peacekeepers to be carried out in two phases of six months.

A first drawdown will reduce the number of UNAMID troops from 13,000 to about 11,400 in six months before dropping to 8,735 by the end of June 2018.

The number of police will drop from 3,150 to 2,888 by January and 2,500 by June.

The General Assembly is scheduled to vote on Friday on the new peacekeeping budget of $7.3 billion, down from the current $7.87 billion.

The United Nations is shutting down its mission in Ivory Coast this month and is will pull its peacekeepers out of Haiti by the end of October.