Showing posts with label Security Situation in Darfur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Security Situation in Darfur. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Sudan News Round-Up: Security situation in Darfur 08 June 2010 - Commissioner bans shisha in Rumbek Central

Quote of the Day
MOST BEAUTIFUL TWEET CONTEST

"I believe we can build a better world! Of course, it’ll take a whole lot of rock, water and dirt. Also, not sure where to put it.” This is the short message written by Marc McKenzie a 41 year old Canadian. The British Writer and actor Stephen Fry, announced him as the winner of the most beautiful Tweet ever in a competition organized for the Hay Festival, an annual event in Wales.
Source: www.france24.com
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SHISHA BANNED IN RUMBEK TOWN, SOUTHERN SUDAN

Shisha banned in Rumbek Town, S. Sudan

Photo source: Sudan Tribune report "Shisha banned in Rumbek Town" published online Monday, 07 June 2010. Note this copy of a comment posted at the report:
"That is an excellent authoritative job Rumbek commissioner. When i talk to relatives and friends who smoke shisha, they turn against and isolate me. Please i wish you talk to your counterpart commissioners in other counties to follow suite in the ban. This is Arab cigarrettes/drugs which originated from the Middle East and then Egypt, now Sudan and finally Uganda. When i went to Uganda, i was supprise to find people bussy smoking shisha. MAUMAU"
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DARFUR/UNAMID DAILY MEDIA BRIEF - Tuesday, 08 June 2010
From United Nations – African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID)
El Fasher (Darfur), western Sudan, Wednesday, 09 June 2010/via APO:
Security situation in Darfur
No significant incidents have been reported over the past 24 hours.

UNAMID is currently planning a mission to the Um Kadada region of North Darfur to verify reports of an ambush of a Sudanese military convoy by Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) forces.

AU-UN JSR, Mediator meet with civil society organizations
UNAMID Joint Special Representative (JSR) Ibrahim Gambari and AU-UN Joint Chief Mediator (JCM) for Darfur Djibril Bassolé today arrived in Nyala, South Darfur, to meet with over 60 representatives from Darfur’s civil society organizations (CSOs).

Mr. Bassolé briefed the attendees on the most recent developments in the Doha negotiations, and emphasized the importance of their participation in future peace talks. He also asked that the CSOs push for the JEM to return to the negotiating table.

According to JSR Gambari, UNAMID and the Office of the JCM will again meet with the civil society organizations in two week’s time, ahead of the resumption of the Doha talks.

UNAMID, Darfur police continue combating violence against women
Yesterday marked the beginning of a ten-day workshop held in El Fasher, North Darfur, by UNAMID’s Human Rights component to increase the capacity of police officers in investigating violent crimes against women. The event was organized with support from the Swiss Government’s Fund Project to implement recommendations by the UN Group of Experts on Darfur.

The opening ceremony was attended by Dr. Hawa Suleiman, Chair of the State Committee on Combating Violence against Women, and recently elected State Minister of Agriculture, as well as the Director of the State Police’s Family and Child unit.

Twenty-five police investigators and commissioned officers from all three Darfur states are attending the course, including seven female officers from North Darfur. There are currently no women in the West and South Darfur state police forces, a fact which the Mission hopes will soon be addressed.

The participants will be trained on national and international standards in investigating crimes against women, including procedures for interviewing suspects and victims, and Sudanese laws on domestic violence, gender-based violence and human trafficking.

This workshop is part of UNAMID’s ongoing efforts to reach out to the women of the region, who have been most affected by the conflict. The Mission has also launched awareness-raising campaigns among local leaders in towns and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps and is increasing its female police advisors.

UNAMID patrols
UNAMID military forces conducted 105 patrols including routine, short-range, long-range, night, and humanitarian escort patrols, covering 95 villages and IDP camps during the reporting period.

UNAMID police advisors conducted 125 patrols in villages and IDP camps.

Source: http://appablog.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/darfur-unamid-daily-media-brief-163/
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SUDAN NEWS FROM USAID

Sudan: Complex Emergency Situation Report #8 (FY 2010)
Report by United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Tuesday, 08 June 2010:
Note: The last situation report was dated May 14, 2010.
BACKGROUND

In 2010, Sudan continues to cope with the effects of conflict, displacement, and insecurity. Since 2003, a complex emergency in Sudan's western region of Darfur has affected more than 4.7 million people, including nearly 2.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). Periodic conflict continues in Darfur among armed opposition factions, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), militias, and ethnic groups.

Despite reports of isolated incidents of violence, the boycott of major opposition parties, and voting irregularities, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir won the first multi-party presidential election in more than 24 years and was sworn in to another five-year term on May 27, according to international media sources. The National Congress Party and the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Movement continue to implement the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement through the Government of National Unity (GNU). The formation of the GNU officially ended more than two decades of north–south conflict. During the conflict, famine, fighting, and disease killed more than 2 million people, forced an estimated 500,000 Sudanese to seek refuge in neighboring countries, and displaced an additional 4 million individuals within Sudan. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that since 2005, approximately 2 million people have returned to Southern Sudan and the Three Areas of Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Abyei, straining scarce resources and weak infrastructure.

In eastern Sudan, the GNU and the Eastern Front opposition coalition signed the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement in 2006. However, humanitarian needs persist in the area, which has experienced slow recovery following decades of conflict. Humanitarian access to the east remains limited due to Sudanese government-imposed travel restrictions.

On October 1, 2009, U.S. Chargé d'Affaires, a.i., Mark L. Asquino renewed the disaster declaration for the complex emergency in Sudan for FY 2010. The U.S. Mission in Sudan has declared disasters due to the complex emergency annually since 1987. USAID continues to work with other U.S. Government (USG) agencies, the U.N., and humanitarian agencies to closely monitor the humanitarian situation during the post-election period and in advance of the January 2011 referenda and popular consultations.

Full_Report (pdf* format - 66.2 Kbytes)

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SUDAN NEWS FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES -

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SUDAN NEWS FROM SRS (SUDAN RADIO SERVICE)
http://www.sudanradio.org/


SUDAN NEWS FROM RADIO MIRAYA
http://www.mirayafm.org/

The 8th National Conference of the Sudanese Women's General Union launched in Khartoum on Tuesday under the theme: "National Unity with Women's Will." In his opening address, President of Sudan, Omar Al Bashir, expressed his government's commitment in safeguarding the constitutional rights of women.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Darfur Sudan news round-up: Alex de Waal, New York Times, SRS (Sudan Radio Service)

Sharp Increase in Lethal Violence in Darfur
Report from Alex de Waal's blog, Making Sense of Sudan
By Alex de Waal, published on Saturday, 5 June 2010:
May 2010 saw the largest number of recorded violent fatalities in Darfur since the arrival of UNAMID in January 2008. According to the figures compiled by the Joint Mission Analysis Centre (JMAC), there were 491 confirmed fatalities and 108 unconfirmed but very probable fatalities during the month, about five times higher than the average for the last year.

The reason for the increase in violence is fighting between JEM and the Sudan Armed Forces, which accounts for 440 deaths. At the time of the ceasefire agreement signed in N’djamena in February (and subsequently in Doha), JEM was required to relocate inside Darfur and joint Sudanese and Chadian forces began patrolling the border. A large and well-equipped JEM force established itself at Jebel Moon. The ceasefire lasted two months, and after it collapsed, with no additional progress in the Doha talks, the fighting rapidly resumed, alongside GoS efforts to prevent Khalil Ibrahim from returning to the field. Unwilling to fight defensively, JEM preferred to go on the offensive. It was forced out of Jebel Moon and instead dispersed across Darfur and into parts of Kordofan, taking the war to these areas. The largest number of clashes has been in south-east Darfur but JEM has also been active in the vicinity of al Fashir.

Reports indicate that JEM has made alliances, possibly tactical and operational, with the SLA in Jebel Marra and with disgruntled Arab groups.

JEM forces have also been responsible for an upsurge in carjacking, capturing 13 vehicles. Among them were UNAMID supply trucks carrying fuel and other provisions. Cut off from its Chadian supply base, JEM is now resupplying itself from whatever resources it can find in Darfur and Kordofan, and UNAMID supplies are an attractive target.

Even without this, May would have been an above-average month for lethal violence, because of an increase in inter-tribal fighting in West Darfur, which caused 119 fatalities (monthly total for inter-tribal fighting: 126). The previous two months have actually seen even higher levels of inter-tribal violence, including fighting in the Kass-Jebel Marra area between the Missiriya and Nuwaiba Arab tribes. The repercussions of the collapse of the Suq al Mawasir pyramid scheme in al Fashir also have security repercussions, first in that the angry defrauded investors have been mobilizing to make their case to the authorities, and second in that commanders of armed groups had been profiting from the scheme and are now left without that source of easy income.
Click here to read comments.
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News from SRS (Sudan Radio Service):