Norway and Sweden withdraw offer to UN to contribute forces to Darfur
Historical archive
Published under: Stoltenberg's 2nd Government
Publisher: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Press release | No: 06/08 | Date: 09/01/2008 | Last updated: 10/01/2008
“Norway and Sweden have for a long time been making preparations to support UN efforts in Darfur. However, due to the Government of Sudan’s opposition, it has become impossible to maintain our offer to make a joint Norwegian-Swedish contribution to the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). We therefore regret that we are now compelled to withdraw our offer to provide a joint engineering unit to this important mission,” said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
“Norway and Sweden have for a long time been making preparations to support UN efforts in Darfur. However, due to the Government of Sudan’s opposition, it has become impossible to maintain our offer to make a joint Norwegian-Swedish contribution to the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). We therefore regret that we are now compelled to withdraw our offer to provide a joint engineering unit to this important mission,” said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
The Norwegian-Swedish engineering unit was to help to provide necessary infrastructure in the early stages of the joint UN-AU mission in Darfur. The UN has been particularly eager to include the Norwegian-Swedish unit in the operation.
“Sudan must take full responsibility for the situation that has arisen. Sudan is preventing Norway and Sweden from contributing to this essential operation, which has been established to improve the security situation of the people in the conflict-ridden Darfur region,” the two ministers added.