Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir signs decree appointing the National Electoral Commission - Lack of funding impedes Abyei Area Administration’s work

Lack of funding impedes Abyei Area Administration’s work

Al-Khartoum reports SPLM Secretary in Abyei Chol Changat said new Abyei Area Administration is facing difficulties in the form of lack of funding and infrastructure.

He said Abyei Roadmap Agreement continues to be just ink on paper due to lack of funds to meet reconstruction, development and voluntary returns needs.

He said the new Administration is occupying a UN Agency premises because of not being provided with a building.

He said JIU deployment had not been completed in the eastern and central migration routes due to lack of funding and delay of meeting with Abyei Area Chief Administrator.

Source: UNMIS Media Monitoring 20 November 2008.
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Ban hails Sudan’s election body as major progress in north-south peace accord



Photo: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right) with President Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir of Sudan in 30 January 2008 (UN)

November 26, 2008 (UN) report - Ban hails Sudan’s election body as major progress in north-south peace accord:

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the decree signed yesterday by Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir appointing the National Electoral Commission, calling it a major step towards implementing the accords that ended a two-decade-long civil war in the south of Africa’s largest country.

Organizing free and fair elections next year is a key element of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement concluding the north-south civil war, which killed at least 2 million people and displaced 4.5 million others.

The UN stands ready to support the electoral process. Mr. Ban’s spokesperson Michele Montas told a news briefing in New York today.

On Sudan’s second war front, in the western region of Darfur, Mr. Ban voiced disappointment that military activity by the Government continues, particularly in light of its announcement of an immediate ceasefire on 12 November. “The Secretary-General reiterates his call for all parties to use restraint and renew their commitment to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire,” his spokesperson said in a statement.

The statement said the African Union-UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) investigated reports of aerial attacks by the Government from 21 to 22 November in South Darfur and confirmed visible effects of air strikes, including four craters created by bombing and the presence of unexploded ordnance on the ground.

Meanwhile in Darfur, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes today visited Hamadiya camp, home for up to 40,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) uprooted by the five-year war there between Government forces and rebels. Overall, the conflict has killed an estimated 300,000 people and driven another 2.7 million from their homes.

Mr. Holmes, on the second day of a visit to the strife-torn region, also visited the town Zalingei in West Darfur, meeting with Government and civic leaders and calling attention to the devastating effect that the conflict is having on the environment.

In Taiba, the only Arab IDP camp in Darfur, he met with families and the elderly who told him about the daily challenges they face, including the need for food and secondary school education for their children.

Yesterday he visited the Kalma camp in Nyala, one of the largest sites for IDPs in South Darfur, where he saw first-hand the work of aid organizations, met with schoolchildren and saw a women’s handicraft project.

Tomorrow Mr. Holmes – who is also the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator – is set to leave Darfur for a two-day visit to southern Sudan.