Sudan: ‘Sanctions no longer consistent with Darfur reality’

UN sanctions imposed under Resolution 1591 (2005) are ‘no longer consistent with the reality on the ground in Darfur,’ where the state of war has been overcome, and security challenges addressed. So said Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed, Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations, at a quarterly update on the 1591 sanctions regime held on 13 September.

According to UN reporting of the meeting, the ambassador said that despite the international community’s failure to ‘honour its pledges towards the peace process,’ the government was ‘committed to addressing remaining challenges, such as intermittent communal clashes,’ adding that ‘such violence can occur in any country regardless of its status or location,’ and that at any rate such conflicts were being addressed through transitional dispute‑settlement mechanisms.

Al-Harith Mohamed said that it was ‘disappointing’ that Security Council members had not been able to agree on benchmarks and targets by which the success of sanctions and Sudan’s progress could be measured.

‘These sanctions cannot go on for 17 years without an objective assessment, or a comprehensive review of the benchmarks,’ he said, reportedly adding that it led him ‘to wonder about the unstated goals of such sanctions.’

However, also addressing the update, Ghana’s Harold Adlai Agyeman, chair of the 1591 committee, said, ‘I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that the sanctions regime was established for the sole purpose of helping to bring peace to Darfur. It is not to punish Sudan, but to support the attainment of sustainable peace.’