SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Global Development Institute – After UNAMID: Who will offer protection to civilians and the displaced in Darfur?
Tanja Müller, a Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute, argues that the presence of UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) “did make a difference – even if not on the scale and scope hoped for or expected by those it aimed to protect.”
Müller quotes a Darfuri refugee who said “never went after the perpetrators” but “the UNAMID work of reporting incidents and coming to visit places where incidents have taken place made perpetrators feel that they have to be careful as their actions might be reported and they might be held responsible”.
Furthermore, Müller cites a 2016 academic report on UNAMID entitled ‘No One on the Earth Cares if We Survive, Except God and Sometimes UNAMID’ as a reflection of Darfuri beliefs that “UNAMID served as the only protection for the displaced, even if often imperfect”.