UN donates satellite system to produce border map in Sudan

The head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan (UNMIS) has handed over a satellite imagery system to the team tasked with producing a border map, one of the key elements of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended the long-running north-south civil war in the vast African nation.

Ashraf Jehangir Qazi presented the equipment, worth $600,000, to the Ad hoc Technical Border Committee – whose 18 members are drawn from both parties to the peace accord – yesterday in the capital Khartoum.

It will be used to create the map to delineate the 1 January 1956 border, one of the major benchmarks of the CPA. Next month, a final report, including the map, will be presented to the Presidency. Once it is endorsed, the Committee must proceed with demarcation on the ground.

Mr. Qazi, who serves as the Secretary-General's Special Representative, congratulated the Committee, established in 2005, on its vital work and underscored the readiness of UNMIS to assist its work.

Abdallah El Sadig Ali, the border team's chairman, called the UN's delivery of the satellite imagery system historic.