Reasonable progress has been made so far drawing down the UN’s former peacekeeping mission in Darfur, UNAMID, and cooperation on the part of the Sudanese Government has been “excellent”. 

That’s according to the head of the UN Department of Operational Support, Atul Khare, who recently returned from a visit to Sudan, where despite the presence of a new political mission, UNITAMS, the transitional Government is ready to assume full responsibility for civilian protection across the restive region.  

Nearly half of the team sites formerly run by the UN have been handed over so far, and by the end of June, the only uniformed presence will be a formed police unit, as Mr. Khare told UN News’s Liz Scaffidi.