The joint UN and African Union peace mission in Darfur (UNAMID) is due to end a 13-year operation on Thursday, December 31, in this region of western Sudan where tribal violence remains to be feared.
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UNAMID "
will officially end its operations on Thursday when the Sudanese government takes over responsibility for the protection of civilians in the region
", The mission said in a statement Wednesday.
The gradual withdrawal of some 8,000 members of the UN mission, military, police and civilians, will begin in January and should be spread over a period of six months.
The mission, which began at the end of 2007, comes to an end despite an upsurge in tribal clashes in Darfur, which left 15 people dead and dozens injured last week.
The Sudanese authorities have assured that their troops will be deployed in the region to contain the violence.
But the people of Darfur fear for their lives and have demonstrated in recent weeks against the impending withdrawal of the peacekeeping force.
The date of December 31 was considered premature by Western members of the UN Security Council, in the name of the protection of civilians.
They called for a gradual and careful process.
Violence in Darfur began in 2003 between pro-government forces and insurgents from minorities, killing around 300,000 people and displacing more than 2.5 million, mostly in the early years, according to the United Nations.
The insurgents accused the regime of Omar al-Bashir - deposed in April 2019 under pressure from a protest movement - of marginalizing the region.
To fight the rebellion, the Sudanese authorities had deployed the Janjaweed, an armed militia composed mainly of Arab nomads, accused of "
ethnic cleansing
" and rape.
"
The lives of Darfuris are at stake, and the United Nations should reverse their decision,
" Mohamed Abdelrahman, a protester, said on Wednesday during a sit-in at Kalma IDP camp in Nyala, the capital of Darfur. -South.
Around him the demonstrators raised banners on which one could read: "
We trust the UN to protect displaced persons
" and "
we reject the withdrawal of UNAMID
".
In October, the Sudanese transitional government, installed in August 2019 and resulting from an agreement between the military and leaders of the protest movement, signed a peace agreement with several rebel groups including in Darfur.