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.



UNRWA: Huge Mounds of Rotting Trash Pile up around Gaza Camps

12 May 2024, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Tents for displaced people are crowded west of Deir al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip after thousands of Palestinians fled Rafah after the Israeli army announced the start of a military operation there. Photo: Saher Alghorra/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
12 May 2024, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Tents for displaced people are crowded west of Deir al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip after thousands of Palestinians fled Rafah after the Israeli army announced the start of a military operation there. Photo: Saher Alghorra/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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UNRWA: Huge Mounds of Rotting Trash Pile up around Gaza Camps

12 May 2024, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Tents for displaced people are crowded west of Deir al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip after thousands of Palestinians fled Rafah after the Israeli army announced the start of a military operation there. Photo: Saher Alghorra/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
12 May 2024, Palestinian Territories, Deir al-Balah: Tents for displaced people are crowded west of Deir al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip after thousands of Palestinians fled Rafah after the Israeli army announced the start of a military operation there. Photo: Saher Alghorra/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Mounds of trash rotting in the heat are piling up close to where displaced people are sheltering in Gaza, a UN official said on Friday, raising fears about the further spread of disease.

Hundreds of thousands of Gazans who had fled to southern Gaza earlier in the more than 8-month conflict have been uprooted again since Israel expanded its military operations against Hamas to the southern city of Rafah in early May.

Louise Wateridge, an aid worker with United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), said that a pile of waste weighing an estimated 100,000 tonnes was building up near people's tents in central Gaza, Reuters reported.

"It's among the population and it's building up without anywhere to go. It just keeps getting worse. And with the temperatures rising, it's really adding misery to the living conditions here," she told journalists via video link from Gaza.

Israel has refused repeated requests to allow UNRWA to empty the main landfill sites, she said, meaning temporary ones are emerging, she added. Even if permission is granted, Wateridge said UNRWA's humanitarian missions such as trash collection have all but halted due to Israeli refusals to allow fuel imports.

Israel's COGAT, a branch of the military tasked with coordinating aid deliveries into Palestinian territories, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel, which launched its Gaza military operation after deadly Hamas attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, says it has expanded efforts to facilitate aid flows into Gaza and blames aid agencies for distribution problems inside the enclave. It controls fuel shipments into Gaza and has long maintained that there is a risk they are diverted to Hamas.

The World Health Organization's Tarik Jašarević said the trash, along with the rising heat, a lack of clean drinking water and sanitation services, was adding to disease risks.

"It can lead to a number of communicable diseases appearing," he said, mentioning that around 470,000 cases of diarrhea have been reported since the start of the war.

Wateridge, who arrived back in Gaza on Thursday after a four-week absence, said the situation had deteriorated significantly. She described the living conditions as "unbearable" with people sweltering under plastic sheets and cowering in bombed out buildings.