UN Peace Operations

 September 2010 -- The first county referendum base (CRB) constructed by UNMIS was inaugurated on Wednesday in the Western Equatoria State county of Mundri West.

The event drew senior government officials at the regional, state and county levels as well as members of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission Bureau and the Western Equatoria State Referendum High Committee.

UNMIS intends to establish a presence in all of Southern Sudan's 79 counties to help monitor the referendum process and provide logistical support and technical advice.

The UN on Wednesday said the number of civilians who had been brutally gang raped recently in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo now exceeds 240. The UN alleged July 30 that Congolese militants of the Mai-Mai group and Rwandan rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) descended upon villages in Kibua and the Walikale areas of the North Kivu province and engaged in the violent assault of at least 154 civilians.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug.

Kigali — Government has put contingents of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) serving under UN-backed peacekeeping operations on standby for pull out, if the UN publishes a report alleging that Rwandan troops were involved in mass killings in the DRC between 1994 and 2003.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister and Government Spokesperson, Louise Mushikiwabo, made the announcement, yesterday, during a news conference to clarify on the government's position on the recently leaked draft UN report.

Some 240 women, girls and babies may have been raped after rebels recently seized a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN says.

Officials had previously said they had received reports of 150 rapes in and around the town of Luvungi.

The UN mission has been heavily criticised for not doing more to protect the local population as it had peacekeepers based nearby.

Sudan says it has instructed UN peacekeepers in Darfur to inform Khartoum of all their travel plans.

Government spokesman Rabie Abdelati told the Reuters news agency that the UN had failed to keep the peace at refugee camps in the western region.

Peacekeepers will now have their bags searched at airports, and will have to inform the Sudanese government before moving on roads, even within cities.

United Nations (CNN) -- The United Nations Security Council has renewed the mandate of its mission in the Darfur region of Sudan for another 12 months.

Council members made the decision Friday, a day before the current mandate was due to end.

July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Three Sudanese civilians loyal to a rebel group that is in peace talks with the government were killed in a camp for displaced people in the western region of Darfur, the United Nations said.

Those killed were affiliated with the Liberation and Justice Movement, an alliance of small rebel groups, Chris Cycmanick, spokesman for the UN-African Union peacekeeping mission, said today. The killings took place yesterday in the Hamadia camp in the West Darfur state town of Zalengi.

UNITED NATIONS, July 26 (Reuters) - There is a risk of increased instability in Sudan due to a lack of a peace deal for Darfur and a looming referendum on whether South Sudan should secede from the North, the U.N. chief said in a report released on Monday.

In a bleak assessment of the situation facing the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan's conflict-torn western Darfur region, known as UNAMID, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's report said that violence rose in Darfur after nationwide elections in April.

July 27, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The head of the African Union-United Nations mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Ibrahim Gambari revealed at a briefing before the UN Security Council (UNSC) today that the peacekeeping force is approaching its full deployment levels.
"UNAMID is nearing full deployment, with 88% of military personnel, 70% of Police, including 13 out of 19 Formed Police Units, and 75% of civilian personnel in theatre" Gambari said today.