I. Introduction
1. The present report is submitted pursuant to paragraph 8 of Security Council resolution 1935 (2010), by which the Council requested me to report every 90 days on progress made towards implementing the mandate of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). The report includes an assessment of progress made against benchmarks set out in annex II to my report to the Council of 16 November 2009 (S/2009/592), as well as the status of the political process, security and humanitarian situations, covering the period from 1 January to 31 March 2011.
II. Political developments
2. There has been some progress at the political level towards a negotiated resolution to the conflict and the launch of a Darfur-based political process.
3. The African Union-United Nations joint mediation continued consultations with the Government, armed movements and other Darfur stakeholders. On 29 January, the leaders of the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) issued a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to the Doha negotiations and noting their intention to work together in reaching a comprehensive settlement to the conflict. The delegation of the Government of the Sudan, which left Doha on 31 December 2010, has returned to the talks. On 15 February, the Joint Chief Mediator, Djibril Bassolé, met with the leader of JEM, Khalil Ibrahim, in Tripoli. The JEM leader advised that his movement’s delegation in Doha had full authority to negotiate on behalf of the movement and confirmed that JEM was prepared to collaborate with LJM in negotiations with the Government.
4. On 17 February, the Joint Chief Mediator and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Qatar held separate meetings with representatives of the Government of the Sudan, LJM and JEM to agree on the next steps in the negotiation process. It was agreed that the Mediator would provide the parties with a set of draft texts on each of the issues under negotiation, which together would serve as a framework for a final comprehensive agreement. Subsequently, JEM agreed to enter into direct talks with the Government.