20 February 2008 -- “The Secretary-General, in a report to the Security Council on the deployment of the African Union-United Nations hybrid operations in Darfur, known as UNAMID, says that the situation in West Darfur has deteriorated sharply over the past two months,” said Marie Okabe, the UN Secretary-General’s Deputy Spokesperson, at a press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York today.

“In light of the security conditions on the ground, he says, the most urgent priority in Darfur is the establishment of a cessation of hostilities, with effective mechanisms for monitoring compliance and violations. To this end, he urges the Government and all parties to cooperate fully with the efforts of the Special Envoys of the AU and the UN to convene negotiations as soon as possible,” Ms Okabe continued.

She further stated that “The Secretary-General also condemns cross-border attacks and urges Chad and Sudan to respect each other’s territorial sovereignty and implement existing non-aggression agreements.”

“The Secretary-General stresses the need to demonstrate that UNAMID can bring a material improvement to the lives of the people of Darfur or risk losing their confidence, and he appeals to all UNAMID troop and police contributors to expedite the deployment of units and assets pledged to the mission. He also urges Member States to provide the outstanding enabling units, including air assets,” she continued.

“On that subject, the report says the process of generating aviation and transportation units has not yet been successful. The Department of Peacekeeping Operations received pledges from Ethiopia for four attack helicopters, but other critical shortfalls remain. One month after transfer of authority, the mission is still short of pledges for one heavy and one medium ground transport unit, three military utility aviation units (18 helicopters in total), and additional attack helicopters to meet the full operational requirements,” Ms. Okabe said in concluding her remarks.