Closure of UNMIS

UNMIS wound up its operations on 9 July 2011 with the completion of the interim period agreed on by the Government of Sudan and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed on 9 January 2005.

The mission ended its six years of mandated operations the same day South Sudan declared independence, following a CPA-provided referendum on 9 January 2011 that voted overwhelmingly in favour of secession.

In support of the new nation, the Security Council established a successor mission to UNMIS – the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) – on 9 July for an initial period of one year, with the intention to renew for further periods as required.

Juba Children’s Hospital receives new outpatient facility

20 Aug 2009

Juba Children’s Hospital receives new outpatient facility

UNMIS handed over a new, six-room building to Al Sabah Children's Hospital in Juba on 13 August to house a new outpatient department.

The brick structure was constructed by 35 soldiers of the Bangladesh Construction Engineering Company under the leadership of Lt. Col. Mohammed Wohab. Funded by a quick impact project grant of $25,000, work began on 1 June and finished on 6 August.

The project was initiated by the UNMIS Public Information Office in Juba to commemorate International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, celebrated globally on 29 May.

"I want to express our joy in handing over this project," said UNMIS Juba Head of Office Winnie Babihuga amid applause at the afternoon ceremony. "We were here to celebrate the peacekeepers' day and the theme for that day was 'the power to empower'. All of us can now see the kind of empowerment that this structure will create and what has come out of a partnership."

Preliminary work on the building began in the 1990s, but was halted in 2000. Prior to the rehabilitation project's completion, children seeking treatment at the hospital had been forced to wait in a courtyard on the hospital premises and endure the rain and intense heat typical of Juba.

The hospital's executive director Dr. Hassen Challong Lokiri and its medical director, Dr. Justin Bruno, attended the handover ceremony, along with Central Equatoria State Ministry of Health Director General, Dr. Hilary Okanyi.

"We don't have strong enough words to express our gratitude for this work done by UNMIS," Dr. Okanyi said at the ceremony, highlighting the swift pace of construction. "You have demonstrated to us that you really have come to help the people and make peace be felt and seen."