The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) today reiterated that the world body's top envoy to the African nation never made remarks attributed to him by some by Khartoum-based newspapers.

Media reports have resurfaced in the Sudanese capital linking Ashraf Qazi, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, with comments predicting a date for an International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment of the President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, for alleged war crimes, including genocide, in Darfur.

These reports were based on an erroneous story published by an Al-Jazeera media outlet, according to a press statement issued by the office of the spokesperson for UNMIS.

“The inaccuracy of that report has been acknowledged. The report in question has been retracted and removed from the Al-Jazeera.net website,” UNMIS said in its statement.

Since 25 December, when the reports first emerged in Sudan, UNMIS has informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the report was inaccurate and misleading.

“UNMIS has also contacted those newspapers which ran commentaries based on the report and they have duly acknowledged its inaccuracy,” the mission said.