“They don’t necessarily want to get dollars. They want to get paid at a fair rate,” one source said, adding that the raise for most local staff earlier in the year was about four percent.
Declining to be identified, the sources said the strike occurred only after months of unsuccessful talks with UN headquarters in New York. If there is no resolution, job action will escalate to two days next week and a full week thereafter, they said.
“I understand your concerns and I am committed to work hard with the UN headquarters to look into these issues,” acting UNAMID head Aichatou Mindaoudou told the local staff in a meeting on Wednesday, the mission said in a statement.
UNAMID has been in Sudan’s far-western Darfur region for more than four years with a mandate to protect civilians in a region where rebel-government clashes, banditry and inter-tribal fighting continues, though violence is less than when rebels began an insurrection nearly a decade ago.
With more than 22,000 international troops and police officers, UNAMID has a budget of about $1.4 billion for 2012-13.
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