Security Council Resolution 2802 (2025) [on Extension of the Mandate of the Un Interim Security Force for Abyei (Unisfa) Until 15 Nov. 2026]

Requests that the Secretary-General provide semestrial updates to the Council on progress against these benchmarks consistent with paragraphs 35 and 36 and signals the Council’s intention to withdraw or reconfigure the mission should involved actors make no substantial progress;

Strongly urges Sudan and South Sudan to provide full support to UNISFA in the implementation of its mandate, and prompt and full deployment of UNISFA personnel, including police, as well as their equipment, immediately removing all unauthorized forces by the 2011 agreement from Abyei and any other obstacles that hinder the implementation of UNISFA’s mandate to protect civilians in Abyei, ensuring the mission’s full freedom of movement, and facilitating UNISFA’s uninterrupted provision of food, medicine, and other supplies to its personnel;

Urges stronger cooperation between Sudan and South Sudan in support of peace, security and stability, including with regard to the Juba Peace Agreement and the high-level discussions between Sudan and South Sudan in August 2021, and calling for the resumption of the JPSM meetings, and encouraging such meetings and those of other joint mechanisms take place on a consistent basis;

Urgently requests Sudan and South Sudan to authorize the use of Athony airport, including by providing the necessary flight clearances, and to facilitate basing arrangements for UNISFA and notes that the utilization of Athony airport will reduce UNISFA’s transport costs and logistical challenges, facilitate MEDEVAC, official travel, and air cargo needs for the Mission and enhance safety and security for UNISFA personnel in line with resolution 2518 (2020), and further calls upon all parties to fully adhere to their obligations called for in its resolution 2518 (2020) and under the SOFAs;

Requests the Secretary-General, Member States, and all parties to continue to take all appropriate measures to ensure the safety, security and freedom of movement of UNISFA’s personnel with unhindered and immediate access throughout Abyei, in line with resolution 2518 (2020), notes with concern the grave risks violations of the SOFAs can present to the safety and security of United Nations personnel serving in peacekeeping operations, and requests the Secretary-General to implement the provisions of resolution 2589 (2021) for establishing accountability for crimes against peacekeepers;

Urges continued progress towards establishing temporary administrative and security arrangements that are agreed to by the parties;

Encourages the African Union, AUHIP, and the UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General to intensify their mediation roles and coordinating efforts with Sudan and South Sudan to establish temporary administrative and security arrangements for Abyei and facilitate the full implementation of the 2011 Agreement on the Temporary Arrangements for the Administration and Security of the Abyei Area and the 2012 Cooperation Agreements between Sudan and South Sudan, to achieve a political solution to the status of Abyei, further encourages UNISFA to increase coordination with the African Union, AUHIP and the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on reconciliation, community sensitization, and political peace processes, and reiterates its requests for the Secretary-General to consult with relevant parties on enhancing the role played by the Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa to support the above mentioned efforts;

Urges renewed efforts to determine conclusively the SDBZ centreline on the ground, and reiterates that the centreline of the SDBZ in no way prejudices the current or future legal status of the border, ongoing negotiations on the disputed and claimed areas, and demarcation of the borders;

Encourages UNISFA to bolster initiatives to support community dialogue and efforts by the Misseriya, Ngok Dinka, Twic Dinka and all other communities within existing resources, such as local peace committees and follow-up mechanisms from the April 2025 Ngok-Twic accord, including women and youth organizations, to strengthen intercommunal relationships and facilitate stability and reconciliation in the Abyei Area, and invites UNISFA to coordinate with the Juba appointed administration in Abyei, the Misseriya administration in Muglad, and the Khartoum-appointed administration, using appropriate civilian expertise, to maintain stability, foster intercommunal reconciliation, and facilitate the return of displaced persons to their villages and the delivery of services;

Urges Sudan and South Sudan to take steps to implement and facilitate confidence-building measures among the respective communities in the Abyei Area, providing for the full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation of women and inclusion of youth, regardless of area of origin, at all stages, including through reconciliation processes at the grass-roots level as well as through ongoing efforts of non-governmental organizations and by fully supporting UNISFA’s efforts in promoting community dialogue, further urges Sudan and South Sudan to consider the support of the UN and African Union to help facilitate dialogue amongst all parties in Abyei, and urges Sudan and South Sudan to take forward the joint investigation, announced in 2020, to hold perpetrators accountable for violence in the Kolem area of Abyei in January 2020, and hold accountable those responsible for violence in Mabok in April 2020 and Dunguop in May 2021;

Calls upon all parties to cooperate fully with the findings and recommendations following the Abyei Area Joint Investigation and Inquiry Committee’s investigation into the killing of a UNISFA peacekeeper and the Ngok Dinka Paramount Chief, following the release of findings by the AU Commission, welcomes the 24 March 2015 AUPSC press statement requesting the AU Commission to engage the parties on the findings and recommendations, and looks forward to the release of the African Union Commission’s report on the killing of the Ngok Dinka chief, as agreed to by the traditional leaders, and for the report to be used as a basis for reconciliation between the communities, bearing in mind the need to promote stability and reconciliation in the Abyei Area;

Calls upon all Member States, in particular Sudan and South Sudan, to provide for the free, unhindered and expeditious movement, to and from Abyei and throughout the SDBZ, of all personnel, as well as equipment, provisions, supplies and other goods, including vehicles, aircraft, and spare parts, which are for the exclusive and official use of UNISFA, encourages the United Nations to minimize the adverse impact of the Sudan conflict and the rainy season on mission supply chains and ensure continued rotation of troops and equipment through alternate corridors, further calls on Sudan and South Sudan to support and cooperate with the United Nations in this regard, including the removal of related bureaucratic and administrative restrictions, which hamper UNISFA operations and the delivery of humanitarian assistance across, in, and out of the Abyei Area, in line with obligations under the SOFA;

Demands that all parties involved allow, in accordance with international law, including applicable international humanitarian law, all humanitarian personnel full, safe and unhindered access to civilians in need of assistance and all necessary facilities for their operations, consistent with United Nations guiding principles of humanitarian assistance, including humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence, and protect UN and associated humanitarian personnel, including national and locally recruited personnel, in line with Security Council resolution 2730 (2024);

Encourages UNISFA to continue supporting the Abyei UN Joint Programme Initiative of the Sudan and South Sudan UN Country Teams;

Encourages Sudan and South Sudan to continue to facilitate the deployment of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) to ensure freedom of movement, as well as the identification and clearance of mines in the Abyei Area and SDBZ;

Strongly urges that all parties cease all forms of violence, human rights violations and abuses, violations of international humanitarian law, and violations of other international law, as applicable, committed against civilians, including women and children, and bring perpetrators of such abuses or violations to justice;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that effective monitoring of human rights violations and abuses, and violations of international humanitarian law, including but not limited to those involving sexual violence against women and girls and violations and abuses committed against women and children is carried out, and reiterates its call upon Sudan and South Sudan to extend their full cooperation to the Secretary-General to this end, including by swiftly issuing visas to the concerned United Nations personnel;

Requests the Secretary-General to implement the following activities in the planning and conduct of UNISFA’s operations within the limits of the mandate and area of operation and in line with existing United Nations guidelines and regulations:

Requests troop- and police-contributing countries to fully implement relevant provisions of resolution 2538 (2020) and all other relevant resolutions on reducing barriers to and increasing women’s participation at all levels and in all positions in peacekeeping, including by ensuring safe, enabling working environments for women in peacekeeping operations, including by seeking to increase the number of women in UNISFA in line with resolution 2538 (2020), as well as to ensure the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women, and integrate responsive approaches in all aspects of operations, including integrating approaches that are responsive to the differentiated needs and role of women in all aspects of operations, including by ensuring safe working environments;

Urges troop- and police-contributing countries to continue taking appropriate action to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, including vetting of all personnel, and pre-deployment and in-mission awareness training, and to ensure full accountability in cases of such conduct involving their personnel, including through timely survivor-centred investigations of all allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, to hold perpetrators accountable, and to repatriate units when there is credible evidence of widespread or systemic sexual exploitation and abuse by those units, appropriate disciplinary measures, and reporting to the United Nations fully and promptly on actions undertaken;

Requests the Secretary-General to provide evidence-based and data-driven analysis, strategic assessments and frank advice to the Security Council, using the data collected and analyzed through the Comprehensive Planning and Performance Assessment System (CPAS) and other strategic planning and performance measurement tools, taking into account performance of all uniformed and civilian personnel, to describe the mission’s impact, to facilitate as necessary a re-evaluation of the mission composition and mandate based on realities on the ground, and further, to continue to inform it of progress in implementing UNISFA’s mandate, and in combined written reports provided on 1 May 2026 and 15 October 2026, and include reporting on:

Requests the Secretary-General to report, no later than August 31, 2026, on the security situation activities undertaken by authorities in Sudan and South Sudan to assess demonstrable progress towards achieving the benchmarks outlined in operative paragraph 1, and to provide a comprehensive assessment of the security implications of any potential drawdown which the Security Council will consider when assessing the mission’s configuration and expresses its intent to consider any further renewal of the mission beyond its expiration on 15 November 2026 based on demonstrable progress by the Sudanese and South Sudanese authorities;