UNITED NATION: The UN Security Council on Thursday warned that a referendum on independence by Iraq’s Kurdistan region was potentially destabilizing, adding its weight to international opposition to the vote.
In a unanimous statement, the 15-member council said the referendum planned for Monday could hinder efforts to help refugees return home and weaken the military campaign against the Daesh group.
The move heightened pressure on Iraqi Kurd leaders to call off the vote after Turkey, Iran and Iraq urged them to abandon the plan that is also opposed by the United States.
Council members “expressed concern over the potentially destabilizing impact of the Kurdistan regional government’s plans to unilaterally hold a referendum next week,” said the statement.
“The planned referendum is scheduled to be held while counter-ISIL (Daesh) operations — in which Kurdish forces have played a critical role — are ongoing,” it added.
The council urged “dialogue and compromise” to address differences between the Iraqi government and the regional authorities.
Iraqi Kurds will vote on September 25 in the non-binding referendum on whether to declare independence in a region that has already been autonomous since the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War.
The United States has warned it may not be able to help Iraq’s Kurds negotiate a better deal with the Iraqi government if they go ahead with an independence vote.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday urged the Iraqi Kurds to scrap the referendum and offered UN help to negotiate a new political deal between Baghdad and the Kurds.
UN envoy to Iraq, Jan Kubis, told Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani last week that the United Nations was ready to broker negotiations between the Kurds and Baghdad, according to a document obtained by AFP.
The negotiations would aim to reach a deal within two or three years on the “principles and arrangements” for future relations between Baghdad and the Kurdish region, the document said.
In return, Barzani’s administration would agree to postpone the referendum at least until the end of negotiations.
UN Security Council warns against holding Iraqi Kurd vote
UN Security Council warns against holding Iraqi Kurd vote
Sudan gold mine collapse kills 13 miners
- The collapse occurred in “five abandoned shafts” of the Umm Fakroun mine in South Kordofan
- “The shafts had been abandoned and shut down, but some miners snuck in and were working illegally,” the statement said
KHARTOUM: A partial collapse of a gold mine has killed 13 miners and wounded six others in southern Sudan, the state mining company said on Wednesday.
The collapse occurred in “five abandoned shafts” of the Umm Fakroun mine in South Kordofan state last Friday, the Sudanese Mineral Resources Company (SMRC) said in a statement.
Since conflict erupted between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, both sides’ war efforts have been largely funded by Sudan’s gold industry, in addition to foreign backers.
“The shafts had been abandoned and shut down, but some miners snuck in and were working illegally,” the statement said.
The war has devastated Sudan’s already fragile economy and left much of the country out of work, yet SMRC announced a “five-year high” in production of 70 tons in 2025.
Of last year’s 70 tons, only “20 tons have been exported through official channels,” army-aligned Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim told AFP this month.
Africa’s third-largest country is one of the continent’s top gold producers, but artisanal and small-scale gold mining, like Umm Fakroun, accounts for the majority of gold extracted.
These mines lack proper safety measures and use hazardous chemicals that often cause widespread diseases in nearby areas.
Before the war pushed 25 million Sudanese into acute food insecurity, artisanal mining employed more than two million people, according to industry figures.
The war has left tens of thousands killed and around 11 million displaced.
