KHARTOUM, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Sudan said on Thursday that the country is keen to step up cooperation with the European Union in field of combating terrorism and illegal immigration.
The remarks was made by Sudan's Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Abdul-Ghani Al-Naeem in his meeting with Koen Vervaeke, the EU Managing Director for African Affairs, according to a statement by the ministry.
The Sudanese official also commended the good relations between Sudan and the EU.
He also said the decision of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to downsize the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) proves the improvement of security situation in the region.
On June 29, the UNSC decided to scale down the military components of UNAMID from 13,000 to about 11,400 in six months and further to 8,735 by the end of June 2018.
The number of police components would drop from 3,150 to 2,888 by January 2018 and to 2,500 by June 2018, according to the decision.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will determine in six months whether further reduction in the mission component is needed after a proper evaluation.
The UNAMID, composed of about 17,000 military and police personnel from more than 30 countries, has been deployed in Darfur since 2008 to keep peace in the region which has been suffering from a civil war since 2003.
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