UN Athorizes Peacekeeping Force for Sudan’s Abyei Region

Posted June 27th, 2011 at 6:35 pm (UTC-5)
Leave a comment

The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to authorize a six-month deployment of 4,200 peacekeeping troops to Sudan's disputed Abyei region.

Ethiopia has agreed to provide the troops.

The Security Council resolution adopted Monday also calls on U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon to ensure that effective human rights monitoring is carried out in Abyei.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement that the United States commends the swift passage of the resolution. She called the deployment a critical step in implementing last week's agreement between north and south Sudan on the demilitarization of Abyei and the deployment of the peacekeeping force.

Northern Sudanese forces occupied the region in May, prompting tens of thousands of residents to flee southward.

Clinton expressed concern about the on-going crisis in the disputed Sudanese state of Southern Kordofan, where fighting has also produced a mass exodus and raised fears of a new Sudanese civil war.

South Sudan is set to declare independence on July 9, but the two sides have not agreed on the future of the Abyei region. Sudan's U.N. ambassador noted that the Security Council resolution, while a step forward, is not a substitute for a final settlement on Abyei.

The oil-rich and fertile land is located on the north-south border.