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August 4, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – A three-hour delay by Sudanese authorities of the medical evacuation of three wounded Ethiopian peacekeepers in the country’s hotly contested region of Abyei may have led to their death, according to the United Nations.
- UN Peacekeepers on Patrol in Abyei (UN Photo/Stuart Price)
The three peacekeepers, who were serving with newly established UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), sustained injuries along with seven of their peers when their patrol vehicle hit a landmine on Thursday. The incident caused the immediate death of one peacekeeper.
Alain Le Roy, the outgoing UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said the other three peacekeepers succumbed to their wounds awaiting medical evacuation.
“We didn’t get the clearance for the Medevac helicopter to take off immediately,” the UN official told reporters at UN Headquarters, adding that Sudanese authorities had threatened to shoot the aircraft down if it took off without clearance.
Le Roy said that a board of inquiry is investigating the matter and that his boss UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had already raised the issue with Sudanese authorities.
According to Le Roy, under the status of forces agreement made between the UN and the government of Sudan states, medical evacuation flights do not require prior authorisation.
However, Le Roy said it was difficult to establish whether the lives of the three peacekeepers could have been saved if the helicopter had been allowed to take off immediately.
The incident comes at a tense point in the relationship between the world body and Sudan after the latter accused the UN Security Council of attempting to “manipulate” the mandate of the joint UN-AU Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).
Sudan, which recently decided not to renew mandate of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) after the South’s secession last month, also warned against the appointment of any former UNMIS employee in UNISFA.
UNISFA, established with a mandated strength of 4,200 Ethiopian peacekeepers to monitor the security situation in Abyei, has already deployed 1,500 troops. The mission was agreed between Sudan and South Sudan as part of security and political arrangements to defuse tension in the area following its seizure by Sudan’s army in May.
A referendum was supposed to decide the dispute in January but Sudan and South Sudan could not agree on who was allowed to vote.
(ST)
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