UN: Sudan, South Sudan Must Settle Dispute over Oil-Rich Region

A file photo shows UN peackeeping soldiers in oil-rich Abyei. (AFP)
A file photo shows UN peackeeping soldiers in oil-rich Abyei. (AFP)
TT
20

UN: Sudan, South Sudan Must Settle Dispute over Oil-Rich Region

A file photo shows UN peackeeping soldiers in oil-rich Abyei. (AFP)
A file photo shows UN peackeeping soldiers in oil-rich Abyei. (AFP)

Sudan and South Sudan must reach an agreement on the disputed, oil-rich border region of Abyei in order for the UN mission there to conclude, according to Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Abyei has been contested since South Sudan gained independence in 2011 and the United Nations Interim Security Force in Abyei (UNISFA) was deployed after deadly clashes that year displaced some 100,000 people.

Charged with coming up with options for ending the peacekeepers’ presence, Guterres said in a recent report to the Security Council it is up to the two countries to decide on the status of the region, AFP reported.

“A longer-term and more sustainable solution in Abyei, resulting in a safe and complete drawdown of UNISFA, would need... good neighborly relations between the Sudan and South Sudan and the parties reaching an agreement on the final status of the Abyei area with the support of the region, the African Union and the United Nations,” the report states.

“I call on all partners to assist both the Sudan and South Sudan to resolve their outstanding issues, particularly to reach a settlement on the final status of Abyei,” Guterres said without suggesting how they might do this.

UNISFA is made up mainly of Ethiopian troops, with some 4,500 soldiers on the ground.

Guterres briefed the council on his talks with the two countries.

South Sudan feels a drawdown of UNISFA could be considered “immediately” but should proceed gradually over a year, Guterres said.

Sudan believes this would allow time for the two countries to establish the mechanisms provided for in a 2011 agreement on temporary administrative and security arrangements in Abyei, he said.

But South Sudan says the departure of the UN mission can be considered only after the final status of the region is decided.

South Sudan insists that security concerns remain in Abyei and in neighboring western Kordofan state that warrant UNISFA’s continued presence, Guterres said.



Nearly 450,000 Afghans Left Iran since June 1, Says IOM

Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP
Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP
TT
20

Nearly 450,000 Afghans Left Iran since June 1, Says IOM

Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP
Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP

Nearly 450,000 Afghans have returned from Iran since the start of June, the UN's refugee agency said on Monday, after Tehran ordered those without documentation to leave by July 6.

The influx comes as the country is already struggling to integrate streams of Afghans who have returned under pressure from traditional migrant and refugee hosts Pakistan and Iran since 2023, said AFP.

The country is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises after decades of war.

This year alone, more than 1.4 million people have "returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan", the United Nations refugees agency UNHCR said.

In late May, Iran ordered undocumented Afghans to leave the country by July 6, potentially impacting four million people out of the around six million Afghans Tehran says live in the country.

Numbers of people crossing the border surged from mid-June, with some days seeing around 40,000 people crossing, UN agencies have said.

From June 1 to July 5, 449,218 Afghans returned from Iran, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration told AFP on Monday, bringing the total this year to 906,326.

Many people crossing reported pressure from authorities or arrest and deportation, as well as losing already limited finances in the rush to leave quickly.

Massive foreign aid cuts have impacted the response to the crisis, with the UN, international non-governmental groups and Taliban officials calling for more funding to support the returnees.

The UN has warned the influx could destabilize the country already grappling with entrenched poverty, unemployment and climate change-related shocks and urged nations not to forcibly return Afghans.

"Forcing or pressuring Afghans to return risks further instability in the region, and onward movement towards Europe," the UN refugees agency UNHCR said in a statement on Friday.

Taliban officials have repeatedly called for Afghans to be given a "dignified" return.

Iranian media regularly reports mass arrests of "illegal" Afghans in various regions.

Iran's deputy interior minister Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian said on Thursday that while Afghans illegally in the country were "respected neighbors and brothers in faith", Iran's "capacities also have limits".

That the ministry's return process "will be implemented gradually", he said on state TV.

Many Afghans travelled to Iran to look for work, sending crucial funds back to their families in Afghanistan.

"If I can find a job here that covers our daily expenses, I'll stay here," returnee Ahmad Mohammadi told AFP on Saturday, as he waited for support in high winds and dust at the IOM-run reception center at the Islam Qala border point in western Herat province.

"But if that's not possible, we'll be forced to go to Iran again, or Pakistan, or some other country."