United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan (UNAMID) Officially Ended its Mandate:
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan (UNAMID) has closed. The United Nations Security Council has decided to suspend the mission from 31 December 2020.
After the closure of the mission, Nepali security personnel working there (Nepal Police, Nepal Army, and Armed Police Force) have started returning in full force. There is also a Formed Police Unit (FPU) mission of Nepal Police in Darfur, Sudan. Which is returning at the end of May. One hundred and forty policemen who went under the command of the SSP for a year about a month ago are expected to return within six months after the closure of the mission.
Fifteen police officers who went to Sudan as individual police officers (IPOs) are also expected to return in five months. They are returning after a month. Nepal Police Spokesperson SSP Basanta Bahadur Kunwar said that the police personnel working there have started returning after the UN decision to close the mission.
There were 13 FPU missions in Sudan from different countries including Nepal. As soon as peace was established in Sudan, the government was pushing for the withdrawal of peacekeepers. Accordingly, the mission has been closed. The United Nations Mission in Sudan was established on March 24, 2007.
Nepal Police is the only FPU mission in Sudan. After that, the dream of the police to go to the peace mission has almost come to an end. The Haiti mission also closed two years ago.
Established in September 2008, the police's Darfur mission is the same one that had been embezzled millions of rupees in procurement. Among them, three former IGPs of Nepal Police have been released from jail.
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority had filed a case alleging irregularities of Rs 280 million in the procurement of goods including APC required for the mission. Initially, the goods used were of poor quality, but the United Nations did not allow them to be used. As soon as the mission is closed, those goods have to be brought back to Nepal.
Opportunities in IPO missions have been gradually declining. After the Sudanese mission closes, police will only go to Congo, Mali, and Somalia. A total of eight Nepal Police personnel are working in the three countries. At one time, up to 500 officers from the Nepal Police had the opportunity to go on a UN peacekeeping mission. Last year, that number was steadily declining. According to police officials, the decline in the peace mission, which is considered an attractive opportunity for police jobs, could have a negative impact on the organization.
There are two main reasons for the decline in police opportunities in peacekeeping missions. The United Nations is the first to reduce the number of peacekeeping missions. The peacekeeping mission has also been affected by US cuts in aid to the United Nations in the past since Donald Trump became president.
The second reason is Nepal's weak 'lobbying' and opacity in the procurement of supplies for peacekeeping missions. Four years before the United Nations prepared the goods, it had assured the Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force to add one FPU each. However, police officials say that the mission was lost because they could not buy enough supplies.
