The Nigerian government has once again kept silent over the pattern with which it will vote for the Palestinian request for United Nations membership even as it raised indications that it would support the proposal.
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?Speaking in New York yesterday, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Mrs. Joy Ogwu, said that Nigeria’s vote was a decision of the federal government.
Ogwu said: “`we will cross the bridge when we get to the bridge,’’ Ogwu told journalists in New York while responding to a question on the matter.?
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“Nigeria is unequivocal in its support of Palestine State and how we vote is a decision of the Nigerian Government and it is the responsibility of Nigeria; but I want to assure you that we will approach this issue and this problem with the greatest sense of duty and responsibility.”
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Describing Palestinian application for United Nations membership as a legitimate national aspiration, Prof. Ogwu who is also the rotational president of the security council, ?said that it is very difficult to deny the right of the Palestinian authority to ask to realize their legitimate rights.
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“They have acted in the light of their national aspiration and we do hope that it will be realised,’’ the Nigerian envoy noted.
Meanwhile, a faction of one of the armed groups in Darfur has agreed to prohibit the use of child soldiers in its ranks after discussions with the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Sudanese region (UNAMID), the mission reported Wednesday.
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The Sudan Liberation Army’s Historical Leadership, a breakaway group of the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdel Wahid (SLA/Abdel Wahid), on 25 September submitted an action plan to the UN through Ibrahim Gambari, the AU-UN Joint Special Representative and head of UNAMID, committing to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers in compliance with Security Council resolutions on children and armed conflict.
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The group’s leader, Usman Musa, had in August issued a command order to his faction’s members to stop “recruiting and using children in the ranks of the movement.” His order also prohibited attacks on schools and hospitals and “all behaviour that leads to abuse and violence against children, including sexual abuse and forced marriage.”
“The aim of UNAMID child protection is to assist the parties to the conflict and local communities to claim full ownership of the protection of children in anticipation of UNAMID’s eventual exit from Darfur,” said Boubacar Dieng, the head of the mission’s child protection unit. “Ultimately, only the people of Darfur can guarantee effective protection for the children of Darfur.”
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