UNAMID, what is wrong ?? / By Nagmeldeen Jamilallah

UNAMID, what is wrong??

The United Nations and African Union deployed more than 25,000 troops on-ground with heavy guns and military tanks to just look around and report? What a silly operation! The mission Established military compounds across Darfur, in every 100 Km distance you will find UNAMID troops inside a barbed wire fenced compound (drinking team made in South Africa, green papers made in Paris, Chocolates made in UK, Banana juice from Lebanon, and canned fish from Australia) while IDPs outside their compounds begging for one piece of bread, crying for protection, appealing for International community’s support to save their innocent lives from Janjaweed attacks. The mission is mandated in papers to protect its personnel, facilities, installations and equipment, and to ensure the security and freedom of movement of its own personnel and humanitarian workers; while in practice its forces simply return back to their compounds because the government guy at the checkpoint ordered them to do so, humanitarian workers could not access some areas like East Jabla Mara for 2 years because it is rebel held territory, simply UNAMID could not ensure freedom of movement of its personnel and humanitarian workers, that freedom of movement is on the hands of Sudan government( one of the warring parties ).

The mission also mandated to protect civilians without prejudice to the responsibility of government of Sudan, What a funny statement!! Did UNAMID think that there are UFOs attacking civilians in Darfur? Or they are not aware that pro-government militias are the main source of civilian’s lives destruction in the region? If UNAMID believe that Sudan government is not attacking civilians, that is very big gap in understanding the real situation, if they believe there is UFOs attacking civilians (that is a big shock).

The international community has to seriously consider the added value of this mission ( the added value of deploying more than 25,000 troops to eat pasta and watch crimes to happen), why shall the world pay a budget exceeding 2 billion dollars annually for nothing ? Why they hold guns if they could not use them to protect themselves or civilians?

Darfur is a place where ambiguous genocide is on-going for years, ethnic cleansing is officially organized and state troops involved in achieving it. Darfur is the place where apartheid is day to day activity of government security agents; villages attacked just because its residents are from X tribe, and civilians arrested, tortured, and murdered just they belong to X tribe. These are facts that UNAMID never ever clearly implied in its reports, they simply write any accident under anonymity (i.e. Unknown armed group instead of Janjaweed, unknown person instead of government security agent, unknown attackers instead of rebels or Sudan army.) thus making its reports useless because the main actor is unknown.

The money that the world and the donors expended in supplying UNAMID up to date could have shifted Darfur to a real paradise , or could have eradicated rebellion in all African countries through equal development, or if used could have changed all the dictators in Africa, but who want to do so ? Who wants Africa to be free of dictators? Who wants Darfur to become a real paradise?

I don’t know the difference between the tourists and peacekeeping soldiers, truly I don’t know because both are in the jungle and receiving food from Paris companies, this is a corruption and misusing of United nation resources, spending billions of dollars in a mission called peacekeeping mission where there is no peace, supplying a soldier operating in Darfur with green paper made in Paris or Banana juice from Lebanon. Additionally Deploying troops with guns to work under hosting government orders and keep themselves inside barbed wire fenced compounds while civilians are killed at the door of that compound is a shame to the UN and African union itself as well as to the entire international community.

Donors have to think twice about funding operations like UNAMID as from the day of its deployment up to date the situation worsened instead, more civilians killed, and thousands of villages burnt, and then the simple question is why UNAMID is there? There is a local fun in Darfur translating UNAMID as the United Nations Another Mistake in Darfur, and although the abbreviation is referring to very different words; practices on-ground and the mission’s activities proof reality of local people translation.

UN has to act and take action now, enough is enough.