UNITAMS Calls for Deploying Joint Forces in Darfur


The Rapid Support Forces of the Sudanese army in Darfur (Reuters)
The Rapid Support Forces of the Sudanese army in Darfur (Reuters)
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UNITAMS Calls for Deploying Joint Forces in Darfur


The Rapid Support Forces of the Sudanese army in Darfur (Reuters)
The Rapid Support Forces of the Sudanese army in Darfur (Reuters)

The Sudanese government has expressed willingness to cooperate with all concerned authorities to implement security arrangements, and to achieve mechanisms for merging forces by what was stated in the Juba Peace Agreement document.

The government announcement coincided with The United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan describing the security conditions in Darfur as “fragile”.

UNITAMS held on Sunday meetings of the Technical Committee on operationalizing the Darfur Permanent Ceasefire Committee of the peace agreement.

It will serve as the main mechanism for the efforts of monitoring, verification, and implementation of the permanent ceasefire on the ground. It will include stakeholders, military and security entities, the civil community, transitional government and armed groups representatives.

UNITAMS is fully committed to fulfilling this role as Chair of the Permanent Ceasefire Committee, it said.

The United Nations Security Council in resolutions 2524 (2020) and 2579 (2021) emphasized ceasefire monitoring in Darfur as a priority area for UNITAMS' support to Sudan.

Defense Minister Yassin Ibrahim Khartoum has said the Armed Forces' were willing to work with all concerned authorities to implement the tasks of the security arrangements and to achieve mechanisms for merging forces by what was stated in the Juba Peace Agreement document.

In the Workshop on Technical Consultations to Reactivate Support of the Permanent Ceasefire Committee, which was organized by the UNITAMS Sunday at Al-Salam Hotel, the minister said that the Armed Forces will work in coordination with the UN mission and that they will accept advice from all concerned parties.

He stressed that the Armed Forces are fully prepared to deploy all over the country to implement the peace agreement.

He stated that the recent developments in some areas in North Darfur State are isolated events, indicating that the shortage in financial resources has hindered the implementation of the security arrangements protocols.

The minister expressed hope that the workshop would come out with recommendations that will contribute to the peaceful transition of power and to achieve the goals of the transitional period.



UNICEF: Gaza Faces Man-made Drought as Water Systems Collapse

FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
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UNICEF: Gaza Faces Man-made Drought as Water Systems Collapse

FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo

Gaza is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations' children agency said on Friday.

"Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva.

"We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza," he added, according to Reuters.

UNICEF also reported a 50% increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry.

It said the US-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was "making a desperate situation worse."

On Friday at least 25 people awaiting aid trucks or seeking aid were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities. On Thursday at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in the central Gaza Strip.

Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries.

He said a lack of public clarity on when the sites, some of which are in combat zones, were open was causing mass casualty events.

"There have been instances where information (was) shared that a site is open, but then it's communicated on social media that they're closed, but that information was shared when Gaza's internet was down and people had no access to it," he said.

On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed three million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident.

On Friday at least 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Ayyash family in Deir Al-Balah, taking the day's death toll to 37.