Photo taken on May 14, 2019 shows the United Nations Security Council holding a meeting on the situation in Sudan and South Sudan, at the UN headquarters in New York. The United Nations Security Council Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) until Nov. 15, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)
UNITED NATIONS, May 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Security Council Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) until Nov. 15, 2019.
Apart from the mandate renewal, resolution 2469 decided to reduce the authorized troop ceiling to 3,550 and also decided that as of Oct. 15, 2019, the authorized troop ceiling shall decrease by a further 585 troops.
As the troop ceiling will reduce, the resolution also decided to increase the authorized police ceiling to 640 police personnel, including 148 individual police officers and three formed police units.
According to the Secretary-General's most recent report, as on April 8, the mission contained only 40 individual police against the authorized total of 345 decided on in the former resolution. The failure to deploy the additional police was due to delays in Sudan's issuance of visas, the report said.
In this regard, resolution 2469 expressed "deep concern that the Government of Sudan has not promptly issued visas to support the deployment of personnel critical for the mandate of UNISFA."
The Security Council first modified the UNISFA mandate in December 2011 to add tasks of supporting a Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism of Sudan and South Sudan, which gained independence from the former in July 2011.
