Abyei: UN to replace Ethiopian forces

The United Nations has agreed to replace thousands of Ethiopian forces within the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) with other UN forces, Sudan announced Wednesday.

This came after the Chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, received a phone call from Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN Undersecretary-General for Peace Operations, in which the two sides discussed arrangements for replacing the Ethiopian forces upon Sudan’s request, the sovereign council said in the statement.

Al-Burhan promised to remove all barriers and challenges facing the mission.

Lacroix said the replacement operations would begin in February and last until March 2022.

Earlier, Sudan demanded the replacement of the Ethiopian forces within the UNISFA in the wake of a border dispute with Ethiopia.

The UNISFA was established in 2011 by the UN Security Council to monitor the Abyei border. It is mainly composed of Ethiopian forces of around 4,200 troops and 50 police personnel. Later, the size of the forces was increased to 5,326, all of whom were from Ethiopia.

Sudan-Ethiopia relations have been strained by rising tensions, including deadly skirmishes, along the border between the two countries since September 2020.

In April 2021, Sudan, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs Maryam El Sadig El Mahdi, demanded that the United Nations replace the Ethiopian soldiers deployed in the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in the disputed Abyei region on the Sudan-South Sudan border with other soldiers because it is not reasonable to have Ethiopian forces in the strategic depths of Sudan at a time when Ethiopian forces are gathering on the eastern borders of Sudan.

According to Minister El Mahdi, Ethiopia has shown unacceptable inflexibility in the Renaissance Dam negotiations and its decision to fill the Renaissance Dam again is contrary to international law.

El Mahdi earlier told reporters in Sudan that the Ethiopian encroachment on the eastern borders was concerning, adding “there are great interests in Ethiopia in Sudan that must be preserved.”

Sudan’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, Yasir Abbas, earlier said that all options remain open to Sudan on the issue of the Renaissance Dam, including the resort to the UN Security Council.