Representatives vote on a draft resolution during a Security Council meeting at UN headquarters in New York, on Dec. 1, 2023. The Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to terminate the mandate of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) as of Dec. 3, 2023. (Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to terminate the mandate of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) as of Dec. 3, 2023.
Resolution 2715 requests UNITAMS to immediately start on Dec. 4, 2023, the cessation of its operations and the process of the transfer of its tasks to UN agencies, funds and programs, with the objective of completing this by Feb. 29, 2024.
It decides that the liquidation of UNITAMS shall begin on March 1, 2024. It further decides to authorize, for the duration of UNITAMS' transition and liquidation, the retention of necessary security personnel to protect UNITAMS' personnel, facilities and assets.
It calls on all relevant Sudanese parties to cooperate fully with the United Nations during UNITAMS' transition and liquidation, and requests the UN secretary-general to keep the Security Council regularly informed.
The resolution won 14 votes in favor out of the 15 Security Council members. Russia abstained.
The Security Council resolution came after the Sudanese authorities' demand last month to shut down the mission.
The relationship between UNITAMS and Sudan has been strained since the outbreak of the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group. The UN secretary-general's special representative and head of UNITAMS at the time, Volker Perthes, was declared persona non grata by the Sudanese authorities in June. Perthes later resigned.
UNITAMS, established by the Security Council in June 2020, was tasked to help Sudan with its political transition after the ouster of long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir in 2019. ■
