Sudan: UN agrees to replace Ethiopian forces within UNISFA
Thursday January 20 2022
Peacekeeper troops from Ethiopia deployed under the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) patrol outside Abyei town, in Abyei state, on December 14, 2016. UN agrees to replace Ethiopian soldiers in UNISFA with other UN troops upon Sudan's request, Khartoum announces. PHOTO | AFP
The United Nations has agreed to replace thousands of Ethiopian forces within the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) with other UN forces, Sudan announced Wednesday.
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 a 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 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 are from Ethiopia.
Sudan-Ethiopia relations have been strained by rising tensions, including deadly skirmishes, along the border between the two countries since September 2020.