Sudanese government on Wednesday announced that the United Nations has agreed to replace thousands of Ethiopian forces within the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) with other UN forces.
According to the sovereign council, the chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, received a phone call from Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN Undersecretary-General for Peace Operations, in which the two sides discussed arrangements for replacing the Ethiopian forces upon Sudan’s request.
Al-Burhan promised to remove all barriers and challenges facing the mission.
Lacroix said the replacement operations would begin in February and last until March 2022.
Earlier, Sudan demanded the replacement of the Ethiopian forces within the UNISFA in the wake of a border dispute with Ethiopia.
The UN Security Council established the UNISFA was in 2011 to monitor the Abyei border. It is mainly composed of Ethiopian forces of around 4,200 troops and 50 police personnel.
Later, the size of the forces was increased to 5,326, all of whom are from Ethiopia.
Sudan-Ethiopia relations have been strained by rising tensions, including deadly skirmishes, along the border between the two countries since September 2020.