UN peacekeepers face danger in volatile Sudan

While the establishment of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) on June 27 tasked Ethiopian forces with monitoring and verifying the demilitarization of Abyei and protection of UN staff and humanitarian personnel, reports of violence and continued fighting leads to questions of effectiveness.

Internal UN accounts reveal the dangers that UN peacekeepers and staff members face in Sudan, including arbitrary arrests, executions, detention, gunfire, and torture. The Sudanese military also faces widespread allegation of war crimes and mass murders, as investigations into the credibility of mass graves in Sudan are currently underway. 

So far, the mistreatment of humanitarian workers has received little public acknowledgement and attention from top UN officials or the U.N. Security Council.

For more information on the situation on the ground, read the article online on Foreign Policy.