U.S. and European media

February 19, 2023

Financial Times: UN seeks to retain Chad peacekeeping force.  Alain Le Roy, the United Nations peacekeeping chief, will travel to Chad next week to try to persuade its government not to oust an international force that the UN regards as a safeguard against a new humanitarian crisis. The 15 members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday gave their full support to Mr. Le Roy's mission, and to the UN's Minurcat force, after Idriss Deby, president of Chad, called for an end to the peacekeeping mandate. If the Security Council bows to the Chadian demand, diplomats fear it could set a precedent for other peacekeeping operations in Africa, where some governments are uneasy about the longstanding presence of foreign troops.

AllAfrica: UNAMID Concludes Special Patrol to Conflict-Affected Areas. UNAMID's peacekeeping forces, led by Police Commissioner Micheal Fryer and Deputy Force Commander Maj. Gen Duma Dumisani Mdutyana concluded yesterday a special long-range patrol to areas of Darfur which have recently seen an increase in violent incidents.  The long-range patrol is one of several initiatives taken by UNAMID to acquire first-hand accounts of the latest clashes from the affected population and to establish stronger ties within the community. The patrol team also visited the Sakali area, in South Darfur, where UNAMID peacekeepers were ambushed on 16 February.

Sudan Tribune: Mbeki's summit for Sudan political parties postponed.  A conference hosted by an African Union (AU) that would have brought Sudanese political parties together has been postponed, according to a statement by the pan-African body. The Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) headed by former South African president Thabo Mbeki have said that the Juba alliance comprised of opposition parties made the request for the rescheduling of the meeting which was supposed to start on Thursday with the participation of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) headed by president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

Sudan Tribune: US Senators Durbin, Brown met with Mutrif Sidiq.  Two US lawmakers, Senators Richard Durbin and Sherrod Brown, met with the Undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Mutrif Sidiq. The visit by the two Democratic Party lawmakers coincides with one by the presidential envoy Scott Gration.

Reuters: South Sudan donors criticize World Bank fund.  Western donors on Thursday criticized a World Bank-run fund for failing to pay out millions of dollars to development projects in war-ravaged South Sudan, saying it had been tied down by red tape.  The World Bank Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) was set up as one of the main ways for donors to funnel cash to the oil- producing region following its two-decade civil war.

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