Africa to get first female leader

Harvard educated Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is to be sworn in as Liberia's president, to become Africa's first elected female leader.

The swearing-in ceremony will make Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf Liberia's first elected head of state since the end of 14 years of war in 2003.



BBC news today reports on the challenges which lie ahead as she begins her six-year term are great:

After a quarter of a century of war and misrule, Liberia's road network is in ruins, there is no national telephone network, no national electricity grid and no piped water.

Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf has also pledged to fight widespread corruption.

A further challenge is to reintegrate the 100,000 ex-combatants, including many former child soldiers, into civilian life.

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Further reading:

Dec 18, 2005 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's story by Helene Cooper, New York Times - An Act of Kindness 20 Years Ago, Resonating Today - Africa's first female president is ready to repay a favour.

Nov 11, 2005 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Liberia's 'Iron lady' claims win.

Oct 16, 2005 Interview: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf - One of two top candidates for Liberian presidency - Liberia's Election: High Turnout and High Hope.
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Quote of the Year

"I am excited by the potential of what I represent - the aspirations and expectations of women in Liberia, African women and women all over the world". - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, speaking on the eve of her inauguration.

She vowed to restore hope to her country's people and give its children back their youth and future.

Thoughts from some bloggers

Some great links at Jewels in the Jungle and My heart's in Accra lead to:

What was her slogan? "All the men have failed Liberia; let's try a woman"

Super photos at Grandiose Parlor where a commentator informs us "Johnson-Sirleaf is divorced ... almost all news sources refer to her as Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf."

Black Looks writes "In other parts of Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique and Nigeria women are waiting in the wings" - and a commentator says "Can't possibly be worse than what the men have done. A good chance it will be better. We have gone without the wisdom of women for far, far too long."

Fire Angel comments "Fact is, in the past we've had a lot of excellent rulers and warriors on our beautiful continent and they just so happen to have been women."

Nigerian Times blogs "First it was Liberia that led the way with the unprecedented election of their First Female President lady Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and now Chile has followed suit by electing their own First Female President, the fearless Michelle Bachelet who was a former political prisoner."
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Yay for equal number of men and women

Note, Bachelet vow on gender equality - The Chilean President-elect, Michelle Bachelet, has pledged to name a cabinet with an equal number of men and women. [Quite right too - leaders around the world ought to follow her example]

Outrage over Sudan's dictator poised to lead Africa

Sudan's military dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir, pictured here below, is likely to become chairman of the African Union and the continent's face to the world despite waging war in Darfur, it emerged yesterday. Read full report by David Blair, Africa Correspondent Telegraph UK 16 January 2006.



Note the report says African leaders may argue that Mr Bashir deserves a reward for the achievements in Southern Sudan.

Critics fear that if Mr Bashir takes the union's helm the Darfur mission will be compromised and Africa's attempt to solve a grave crisis will end.

Further reading

Jan 16, 2006 Reuters - "It is going to be difficult for the AU heads of state and government not to allow Sudan to chair," said Prince Mashele, of the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria. "African leaders are diplomatic in dealing with sensitive issues and will not raise Sudan's rights or governance issues publicly."

Jan 16 AP - Sudan's bid to chair AU has put African leaders in tough position.

Jan 15 Observer - Row flares at Sudan summit - South African analysts are deeply alarmed by reports that their country's President, Thabo Mbeki, intends to support Sudan's bid.

Jan 14 Reuters/SAPA - Sudan's bid to chair AU likely to fail - Nigeria's President could stay in chair

Further reports at PoTP - more than 40 African non-governmental organisations have launched a bid to prevent Sudan from chairing the African Union.



Photo: David Blair has been the Daily Telegraph's Africa Correspondent since June 2004. When not touring the continent, he lives in Johannesburg. He was previously based in the Middle East, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. See his blog entry Jan 11, 2006 A monster at large - it's about Joseph Kony "the biggest mass murderer at large in the world today, bar none. Kony leads the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group that has terrorised northern Uganda for almost 20 years."



Photo: Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir (C) is greeted by Nigerian officials during his arrival in the Nigerian capital of Abuja December 19, 2005. (Reuters/ST). Chinese news agency Xinhua reports that on Sunday he asked the AU to continue sponsoring peace talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebel groups. Bashir made the appeal while addressing an opening session of a gathering of African universities as part of preparations for the sixth AU summit on Jan 23-24 in Khartoum.

Sudan proposes formation of joint army force of GOS/Rebel/AU troops for Darfur and offers to partly finance AU troops in Darfur

Unsourced article from Khartoum Jan 14, 2006 says Sudan proposed in meetings of the AU's Peace and Security Council the formation of an army representing Sudan government, the AU and the armed groups in Darfur.

AFP report Jan 15, 2006 confirms Sudan proposes tripartite force for Darfur.

IOL report Jan 15, 2006 claims such a proposal was likely to be fiercely opposed by rebel movements who want Western troops to take over from the AU peacekeepers.

See Sudan Watch archive:

October 7, 2005 John Garang proposed joint force of 30,000 AU/GOS/SPLMA troops for Darfur

April 22, 2005 Bloggers unite to support Darfur peacekeeping mission - a troika of 30,000 forces from Sudan, New Sudan and UN/AU

April 21, 2005 South Sudan: SPLM/A willing and ready to deploy 10,000 of its troops to Darfur
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Sudan offers to finance partly AU peacekeepers in Darfur

Article from Khartoum (see above) says Sudanese FM Lam Akol announced Sudan's willingness to participate in the financing of the AU troops in Darfur 'to restore peace and stability' to the region. Excerpt:

Financial problems facing the African Union's mission can be resolved by the provision of 160m US dollars, if the African member states cooperated to do so, he said Saturday at a news conference held at the Foreign Ministry.

If they want to restore and maintain security in Darfur, they have to resolve the major obstacle, he said.

Photo: Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol, Oct. 2004. (AFP/Salah Omar/Yahoo)

UPDATE Darfur rebel SLM rejects Sudan's tripartite force proposal

AFP report Jan 16, 2006 says Darfur's main rebel group SLM on Monday rejected Khartoum's offer to deploy joint forces alongside African Union troops. "The Sudan Liberation Movement rejects the Sudanese government's proposal ... and insists on the deployment of an international force," the rebel group said in a statement.
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Sudan should accept to hand over Darfur mission to UN - AU

AFP report Jan 14, 2006 quotes a senior AU official as saying Sudan should accept calls for the AU mission in Darfur to be handed over to the UN. Excerpt:

Patrick Mazimhaka, the deputy head of the executive AU Commission, said that as a member of AU's Peace and Security Council (PSC), Sudan was obliged to abide by the decisions of the 53-member pan-African body.

"Sudan will have to accept that decision (when it its made). They are part of the PSC, they will have to comply with it," said Mazimhaka. "All the member countries of the AU have to accept the decisions taken by majority of the PSC."

Also, AFP explains:

AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) costs 17 million dollars (14 million euros) a month, nearly all of which is paid for by donors.

The AMIS, financed mainly by the European Union, the UN and the US, currently has some 7,800 personnel, including peacekeepers and observers, in Darfur.

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Khartoum escalates conflict in E Sudan, S Sudan, and Darfur in W Sudan

Coalition for Darfur blogs Eric Reeves' latest Analysis: Khartoum Escalates Conflict in Eastern Sudan, Southern Sudan, and Darfur.

Row flares at Sudan summit

A row has erupted over Sudan's attempt to chair the 53-nation African Union summit in Khartoum on 23 January. South African analysts are deeply alarmed by reports that their country's President, Thabo Mbeki, intends to support Sudan's bid. - via The Observer January 15, 2006.
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Note Captain Marlow's blog entry: "Is the African Union awakening from its lethargy? (Translation: have they understood that the world has almost given up on Africa?)"

Interview with Bob Turner, UNMIS head of Returns, Reintegration and Recovery

A year after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the Sudanese government on 9 January 2005, the repatriation of about 4 million southerners who were displaced during the 21-year civil war remains a big challenge.

Bob Turner is the director of the Returns, Reintegration, and Recovery unit of the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS). IRIN asked him to assess the return process over the past year, as well as his expectations for 2006.

Click here to read excerpts from the interview via IRIN January 12, 2006.



Photo: Bob Turner, head of the UNMIS Returns, Rehabilitation and Reintegration Unit of UNMIS. (Shannon Egan/IRIN)
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Sudanese President holds aloft a bird symbolising peace

On January 10, 2005 with a peace treaty in hand (that he did not personally sign) Sudan's president Omar el-Bashir began a triumphant tour of his country, greeted by thousands of revellers.

A report in the Guardian described how the president, wearing a long, white chieftain's shirt over his safari suit, stopped and restarted his speech several times when onlookers regularly broke into deafening applause and began waving white pieces of cloth in signs of peace.

"Our ultimate goal is a united Sudan, which will not be built by war but by peace and development," el-Bashir said.

"You, the southerners, will be saying, 'We want a strong and huge state, a united Sudan."

"The money which we have been spending on war will now be spent on services and development in the south," he said from his heavily guarded podium.



Photo: Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir holds aloft a bird symbolising peace at a rally in Juba, Sudan Monday, Jan. 10, 2005. He visited the southern town of Malakal as part of a tour of the region to publicise the deal. He told more than 10,000 local people who packed the stadium to celebrate the end of a war: "From now on, there will be no more fighting, but development and prosperity." (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)

Material from Sudan Watch January 2005 archive: Sudan peace deal 'bad' for Darfur.

Chinese security forces in Sudan driving Sudanese people from their homes in upper western Nile oil fields, S Sudan

At a Sudanese refugee camp in Cairo, Egypt David Morse witnessed the desperation behind the protests -- and eventual slaughter -- of African refugees in Egypt. Here is an excerpt from his Jan 13, 2006 report Murder from Darfur to Cairo [via Eugene Oregon at Coalition for Darfur, with thanks] -

Equally disturbing, and perhaps even more telling of the pressures on Sudanese refugees, is the fact that some 5,000 newcomers have arrived at Kakuma camp in Kenya since Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in January 2005.

Some are fleeing new conflicts, such as one in the oil fields of the upper western Nile, where Chinese security forces are said to be driving people from their homes to make way for drilling, pipelines and road building being carried out by China's National Petroleum Corp.

Some of this is reportedly with the approval of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which is eager to partake in the region's oil wealth, as provided under the peace agreement. China has been the most aggressive of the foreign suitors seeking to tap Sudan's oil reserves.

Crisis in Kakuma camp Kenya - UN reports alarming rates of malnutrition Nov 2005

At a Sudanese refugee camp in Cairo, Egypt David Morse witnessed the desperation behind the protests -- and eventual slaughter -- of African refugees in Egypt. Note this excerpt from his account dated Jan 13, 2006 "Murder from Darfur to Cairo" - [via Eugene Oregon at Coalition for Darfur, with thanks]

Kakuma camp is larger than most actual towns in Kenya. Home to 73,000 refugees, it is a sprawling expanse of huts organized along tribal lines, its perimeter fenced with concertina wire, and surrounded by desert. The camp, once regarded as temporary, is now 14 years old.

Sudanese make up the majority of the camp's inhabitants. Most fled their homeland some years ago during Africa's longest-running civil war -- the 21-year-old struggle between the Islamist government centered in Khartoum, in the north, and the marginalized black African rebels in the south fighting under the banner of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

Among the refugees I interviewed, some had survived attacks from government troops and helicopters. Others had fled the SPLM and the bloody tribal violence and famine that followed a split within its leadership. When I asked Daniel Mathiang, a 25-year-old Dinka tribesman, about the crisis that had forced him from his home in south Sudan, he responded with irony in nearly perfect English. "Do you want to know about the crisis so many years ago, or do you want to know about the crisis right now in Kakuma?"

"Our daily ration of water is 1 liter per person," he continued. "This is for drinking, cooking and washing." As a visitor who was drinking 3 to 5 liters per day to stay hydrated, I found this difficult to believe. But others corroborated Mathiang's claim. Food was also severely rationed. The weekly allotment of maize was 3.5 kilograms per person; .2 kilos of beans, and .25 of rice. Milk and sorghum were more abundant. The couple dozen people gathered around me, mostly children born in the camp, showed none of the grosser signs of malnutrition that I could observe, but all were thin.

Their complaints were borne out in testimony given in June 2002 before the U.S. Senate by Jason Phillips, director of the International Rescue Commission's program in Kenya. The IRC's role is chiefly to supplement the meager daily rations in the case of young children and lactating women. Refugees rarely receive the 2,168 calories considered the daily minimum, Phillips said. He called attention to a "dangerously high rate of malnutrition in Kakuma representing a complete abandonment of minimum international humanitarian standards for food assistance." Chronic shortages in the World Food for Peace pipeline were creating a "downward spiral" at Kakuma. Cutting back on food, he concluded, was "neither cost-effective nor humane."

Phillips' warning came more than three years ago. Inaction and the past two years of drought in northern Kenya and Ethiopia are expected to triple the rate of malnutrition among children under 5. Not surprisingly, last November the U.N. World Food Program Emergency Report cited "alarming rates of malnutrition" in Kakuma. In December, to make matters worse, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton succeeded in putting a cap on the U.N.'s annual spending. In short, the food deficit at Kakuma and other camps is increasing, not shrinking.

Sudanese refugees in Kenya reluctant to go home

Rob Haarsager of Sudan Man says an article in the Sudan Tribune January 13, 2006 "Sudanese refugees in Kenya reluctant to go home" reflects a lot of what he hears from Sudanese in Kenya.

Note, the article says Kenya's Immigration Minister Gideon Konchellahis is quoted as saying of the southern Sudan refugees in Kenya: "If you don't want to return, then Kenyans will flood southern Sudan in search of business opportunities created by peace."

Further reading:

Feb 18, 2005 Sudan's 'lost girls' fear repatriation after peace deal: UN official

China and Qata blocks report to UN Security Council re illegal arms flow to Darfur Sudan

Don't miss report by Irwin Arieff for Reuters Jan 10, 2006.

Note the part that says 'Khartoum "may be preparing for or anticipating expanded military operations in Darfur."

UN claims Russia, China delay peacekeepers for Sudan

Moscow News today says a UN official was quoted by Reuters as saying Russia and China have delayed promised helicopters and medical units to a UN peacekeeping force in Sudan, thereby causing other countries to postpone sending troops. Full story (Moscow News) 14 Jan 2006.

British troops may join UN Darfur force

The UN is to ask Britain to provide troops for a beefed-up peacekeeping force to tackle an upsurge of violence in Darfur.

British military sources said yesterday that Britain would "actively consider such a request."

See full report by Gethin Chamberlain, Chief News Correspondent at the Scotsman who was one of the first journalists reporting on Darfur from the field two years ago.

Note the report says "UN sources told The Scotsman that the UK would be expected to be "instrumental" in bringing to bear political pressure for such a mission and in providing components of the force."
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Blair to replace Kofi Annan at UN?

Good news. BBC report January 14, 2006 says Clinton backs Blair as UN chief.
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Support in the Security Council for a UN takeover

UK based anti-genocide watchdog Aegis Trust, in a Press Release 13 January 2006, hails movement toward UN mandate for Darfur. Excerpt:

Britain's UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said there was support in the Security Council for a UN takeover. "We're quite clear that's what we need to do if the African Union agrees," he said after Thursday's lunch with the Secretary General. "But the African Union must be brought to agree."
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AU backs UN plan for Sudan force

BBC January 14 says AU backs UN plan for Sudan force. Excerpt:

"The government of Sudan obviously cannot be the one to make a choice about this," deputy chairman of the AU Commission, Patrick Mazimphaka, told the BBC. He said the AU mission in Darfur and observers on the ground were better placed to assess what was needed.

The BBC's Africa editor Martin Plaut says that if this position is backed by the African heads of state, it will mark a very real change in the status of the AU itself.

Note the report states, Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol told the BBC the UN had no business proposing a new force without Khartoum's approval.

Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan stands firm, but more international support needed, UN Security Council told

UN News Centre report dated 13 January 2006 provides a link to Council Briefings by Jan Pronk and Salim Ahmed Salim 13 January 2006.

Note, Mr Jan Pronk is the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in the Sudan and Head of the United Nations Mission there. Mr Salim Ahmed Salim is Special Envoy of the African Union for the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on the Conflict in Darfur.

Sudan: UN envoy says Security Council must enforce sanctions

Excerpt from above UN News Centre report:

UN Security Council must enforce its sanctions against belligerents and human rights violators in Sudan or lose credibility, the head of the UN Mission in the country (UNMIS) said.

"If even weak sanctions are not going to be implemented, the Security Council doesn't take itself seriously and they have to," Jan Pronk told reporters after briefing UN Security Council on January 13, 2006.

"They have to because otherwise the people on the ground are just laughing."

Sudan's bid to chair AU likely to fail - Nigeria's President could stay in chair

Reuters report Jan 14 says Sudan's bid to lead the African Union will probably fail through conflict of interest and a decision on who is to chair the AU is not likely at its summit in Khartoum on Jan. 23.
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Jan 14, 2006 SAPA report says Sudan's bid to chair the African Union has put the continent's leaders in a tough position because of the country's poor human rights record and the conflict in Darfur.

UN envoy in Sudan calls for up to 20,000 UN peacekeepers to disarm militias in Darfur

Associated Press report Jan 14 reprinted by Khalee Times says Jan Pronk, the top UN envoy in Sudan, declared on Jan 13 that efforts to bring peace to Darfur have failed and called for a robust UN peacekeeping force of up to 20,000 troops to disarm marauding militias and provide security so over 2 million displaced people can return home.
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Pronk admits peace strategy to halt "cleansing in Darfur" has failed

Unsourced report January 13 reprinted by Sudan Tribune says on briefing the UN Security Council Jan 13 on latest developments in Sudan, top UN envoy Jan Pronk also called for sanctions against those responsible for the violence.

Describing the security situation in Darfur as "chaotic," he said: "looking back at three years of killings and cleansing in Darfur we must admit that our peace strategy so far has failed."

"Terror continues. At least once a month groups of 500 to 1000 militia on camel and horseback attack villages, killing dozens of people and terrorizing the others," he added.

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Further reports at Passion of the Present.

US supports UN sending troops to help in Darfur

The United States supports augmenting African Union forces in Darfur with UN peacekeepers but has not offered its own troops for such a mission, US officials said on Friday January 13, 2006.

Sudan says UN peace force in Darfur unwelcome

Quelle surprise. Sudan is not ready for a proposed UN peace force in Darfur, its foreign minister has told the BBC today, January 13.
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Sudan does not want another force on the ground

Latest report from Reuters says Sudan on January 13 rejected a suggestion by UN head Kofi Annan that US and European troops be sent to Darfur, saying the international community should give more cash to African forces already on the ground. Extracts from the report:

"We think that the African Union is doing a good job and so far they have not said they are unable to do that job," [Sudanese] Foreign Minister Lam Akol told Reuters.

"Naturally what should happen is to give them the money they want, not to complicate matters by involving another force on the ground," he said.

Darfur rebels would welcome foreign troops

One of two main Darfur rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), said it would welcome U.S. troops.

"If the Americans came they would be preferable to the African Union who so far have failed in their duties to protect civilians," SLA Vice President al-Raya Mahmoud Juma'a said.

"They (the African Union) have enough forces and equipment, but they still cannot do their job and stop the attacks," he told Reuters from Darfur.

The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said the nationality of the force did not matter. But JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein said more troops were needed with a stronger mandate to protect civilians.

End of March decision on AU Darfur Mission handover to UN

The AU, in a statement on Friday, said it "expresses its support, in principle, to a transition from (an AU) to a UN operation".

It added it planned to meet before the end of March to make a final decision on any future handover to the United Nations.

What peace to keep and monitor?

[Sudanese Foreign Minister] Akol said the AU was a peace monitoring force and Sudan did not need the military power of the United States in Darfur.

"What would they do other than what the African forces can do?" he said. "We are not looking for a force who is going to fight," he added.
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Responses from bloggers

Note comment at this blog entry from unknown author of a new blog Genocide au Darfour, saying:

"The commander in charge of the massacres in Darfur is called MAHAMAT NOUR ABDELKRIM.

The "captain" Mahamat Nour, ex-officer of the chadian army, has commanded the Jandjawids with the sudanese logistic. He has been the principal planner of the genocide in Darfur. Thanks to his chadian nationality, he was used as an alibi by the Sudanese government."

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From the UK, Mick Hartley blogs a must-read executive summary of PHR Report on Darfur.

UN's Annan wants US, Europe to consider force to police Darfur - AU considers Darfur Mission hand over to UN

Reuters report Jan 12 says the African Union is considering handing over its Darfur Mission to the United Nations because of lack of funds:

"The time has come to make a pronouncement on the future of the AU Mission in Darfur and the ways and means to adapt it to the present challenges, including the hand over to the United Nations at the appropriate time," said a report by the AU Peace and Security Council, obtained by Reuters.

UN's Annan wants US, Europe to consider force to police Darfur

The Reuters report quotes Secretary-General Kofi Annan as saying on Wednesday the UN is considering a tough mobile force to police Darfur and hopes the US and European military will help stop the bloodshed, rape and plunder.

But here's the catch [over the past two years, Sudan has refused an expanded mandate for AU peacekeepers and all offers of other foreign troops as it would be seen as occupation - and forced entry as an act of war - was supported on this stance by China, Russia and many African leaders]: Mr Annan said that first the Sudanese government, the 15-member UN Security Council and the 53-member African Union, which has sent the only foreign troops to Darfur, had to agree to a UN operation:

"We need to get the (Sudan) government to work with us in bringing in an expanded force with troops from outside Africa, because until recently it has maintained that it will only accept African troops," Annan told reporters. "But I think we have gone beyond that now."

"Obviously the international community cannot allow that situation to go unaddressed, and in all likelihood will have to look at other options, including possibly the U.N. working with the African Union to address the situation."

Annan warns Darfur rebels

Annan said Darfur rebels now were also attacking people and warned them to take seriously negotiations now being held with the Khartoum government in Abuja, Nigeria.

Sudanese president wants to chair African Union

Note the report quotes Mr Annan as saying any AU handover would take months. Also, it explains a decision on the future of the AU's Darfur Mission is to be taken at summit in Khartoum Jan 23-24. [The summit is where the Sudanese president, listed in a magazine poll last year as the world's worst dictator, will find himself between a rock and a hard place under the world's media spotlight, when decisions on Darfur are made as he hopes to be voted Chair of African Union - voting takes place during the summit.]



Photo: Sudanese President al-Bashir.

Designate Sudan as sponsor of terrorism is a mistake - Bashir

Sudan has been on the United States list of state sponsors of terrorism since August 1993. Following a thorough intelligence review, Sudan's Islamist government was found to be providing sanctuary, safe passage, military training, financial support and office space in Khartoum to officials of international terrorist and radical Islamic groups at that time.

On the first November 2005, US President George W. Bush has extended for one year sanctions against Sudan, a country the United States considers a sponsor of terrorism, the White House announced in a statement.

African Union have resources until March

Jan 12, 2006 UN News Centre UN weighs options for Darfur as funds for African Union force run low - "From what I know, they (the AU) have resources up till March," Mr. Annan told journalists after his monthly luncheon with the 15 Security Council members. [via Coalition for Darfur]

Physicians for Human Rights Report "Our most revealing and authoritative portrait of genocide in Darfur"

A short summary by Eric Reeves in today's Sudan Tribune describes the new report by Physicians for Human Rights as an extraordinarily powerful and authoritative anatomy of genocide in Darfur and our most revealing and authoritative portrait of genocide in Darfur. [via POTP Tonight's Reminders]

You cannot say you did not know

Jan 11, 2006 - Click here and turn up your sound. Spend a few minutes watching short film clips of what been going on in the Sudan for more than two decades at a cost of 2.5m lives. Be sure to watch the flash movie on Darfur by Physicians for Human Rights.

Sudanese troops disguising themselves as African peacekeepers - AU

In a report to be submitted to the AU's Peace and Security Council on Thursday, AU Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare said the Sudanese troops were painting their vehicles white, the colour of AU peacekeepers' vehicles "to disguise their identities and launch surprise attacks on their opponents".

Full story 12 Jan 2006 News 24 SA.

The El Multaga resettlement site - Sudan's Chinese backed Merowe Dam is for the greater benefit of Sudan

Note Telegraph article 8 Jan 2006 - Race to save first kingdoms in Africa from dam waters - excerpt:

"Archaeologists have come under pressure to down tools from campaigners against the dam, who claim that their activity lends the project legitimacy.

Derek Welsby, the deputy keeper of the British Museum's department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, who is currently excavating near the village of ed Doma, rejected this. "The dam is going ahead whether we are here or not and it would not benefit anybody if we were not working here," he said.

He admitted that it was sad to witness the end of a lifestyle that has continued, unchanged in many ways, since it was first depicted in the ancient rock etchings.

"You sense continuity from Neolithic times with their representations of elephants, giraffes and ostriches, to the cattle drawings of the Kerma period, and followed by drawings of camels, horses and fighting men," he said.

Ali Yousef, a date palm farmer in ed Doma, voiced fears that the artificially irrigated desert land offered in government resettlement pledges might not be as fertile as that on the Nile's banks, but added: "We have to accept that the dam is for the greater benefit of Sudan."

[Link via Egyptology News: Flooding Nubia - again]
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The El Multaga resettlement site

Telegraph article above says environmental groups estimate the Merowe Dam project will lead to the displacement of about 50,000 people - small farmers and their families, who have tilled the Nile's fertile banks for centuries.

According to International Rivers Network (IRN), Sudan intends to assess four potential hydropower sites in South Sudan, which could result in a sizable hydropower investment program beginning as early as 2007.



Photo (IRN): The El Multaga resettlement site, where some of those being resettled for Merowe Dam (also known as Hamdab or Hamadab Dam) have been moved, is a barren stretch of desert.

IRN says "the 174-km-long reservoir will inundate an area rich in history and antiquities dating back 5,000 years. Project planning has been non-transparent, and people who will be directly affected by it have not had their voices heard. Dissent has been met with harsh government repression." Full story.

Further reading:

Jan 4, 2006: Nubians will be displaced from ancient seat by lake built for Merowe Dam

May 2, 2005: Sudan: The Merowe/Hamadab Dam Project

Darfur genocide Physicians for Human Rights' new report

Via Physicians for Human Rights January 11, 2006:

Just days before Sudanese leaders responsible for orchestrating ongoing acts of violence in Darfur host the African Union summit in Khartoum, a new report from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reveals, in unprecedented detail, the underreported catastrophic elimination of traditional livelihoods in Darfur, Sudan.

The report, Assault on Survival: A Call for Security, Justice and Restitution, spotlights the obliteration of the means of survival and the way of life in three villages by the Government of Sudan (GOS) and its proxy militia, the Janjaweed.

Note, PHR says the international community should press for a UN Security Council resolution to immediately authorize a multinational intervention force in Darfur under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. This "blue helmeted" international force would supplement the AU's current troop level of 7,000.

Darfur genocide - You cannot say you did not know

Time to watch some short films as a reminder of what has really been going on.

Please turn up your sound and click into Physicians for Human Rights powerful flash movie on Darfur: Lives Destroyed.

The movie was produced early 2005 when Darfur's death toll was estimated at 300,000. The number has now increased to more than 400,000 and rising.

Never again is turning into "Oh no, not again". You cannot say you did not know. We must not remain silent.

Warring parties attending Darfur peace talks must not be allowed to break from negotiations until a consensus is reached on land rights and disarmament. The lives of millions of defenceless Sudanese women and children depend on it. The stability of Sudan is fundamental to the whole of the African continent.

A Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Southern Sudan was signed 9 January 2005 after 2 million Sudanese people had perished in a 21 year long war. See how in National Geographic's incredible flash movie "Shattered Sudan - Drilling for Oil, Hoping for Peace".

Don't miss Protect Darfur's 4 minute film.

View short video Not on my watch from Aegis Trust with soundtrack by Annie Lennox.

And, if you need "cheering up" after digesting all of the above, tune in to Mark Fiore's clever insightful Cartoon that says it all.



Further reading

April 29, 2005 Children's Drawings from Darfur, Sudan

BBC Panorama documentary The new killing fields

PBS Frontline World special report on Sudan

BBC archive on Janjaweed Sudan's shadowy Arab militia

MSF (Doctors Without Borders) report The Crushing Burden of Rape Sexual Violence in Darfur. (PDF file)

BBC archive In Depth Sudan provides an excellent resource and overview of the Sudan crisis.

Update

Jan 13, 2006: Physicians for Human Rights Report "Our most revealing and authoritative portrait of genocide in Darfur"

Jan 15, 2006: Medpundit blogs an excerpt from PHR's grim report on Darfur.

U.N. panel recommends sanctions against Sudan officials and rebels blocking peace in Darfur

This time might be for real. A U.N.-appointed panel accused the Sudanese government and rebels of blocking peace in Darfur, and recommended that the Security Council impose sanctions on key figures from all groups.

The panel's final report, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, also accused all parties to the conflict of committing widespread human rights violations, including torture. It said the government, the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, and militia groups "have shown least regard for the welfare of civilians."

New to U.N. Security Council, Qatar Sides With China

Excerpt from report today on UN news in New York Sun:

"When Qatar joined the U.N. Security Council January 1, some hoped the country's diplomats would be amenable to compromise on issues separating America and the Arab world. But in one of its first acts as a council member, Qatar this week joined China and allied with the government of Sudan on the issue of Darfur."

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How often is the UN Veto used?

"There are five members of the UN Security Council: the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, and China. The People's Republic of China took the Republic of China's seat in the UN by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 in 1971. In 1991, the Russian Federation acquired the seat originally held by the Soviet Union, including the Soviet Union's former representation in the Security Council. How many times have these parties used the veto?" Find out at UK blog ComingAnarchy.

Also, from a recent blog entry at ComingAnarchy (sorry no direct link):

A Century of Genocide

Armenia (1915)
Ukraine (1932-1933)
Nazi Germany/Holocaust (World War II)
Bangladesh (1971)
Cambodia (1975-1979)
Countries in the former Yugoslavia (1990s)
Rwanda (1994)
Zimbabwe (2000)
[DR] Congo (Today)
Darfur (Today)
? (Tomorrow)

US sending high level team of diplomats and military officials to Ethiopia and Eritrea

Interesting initiative to UN Security Council by John Bolton, US ambassador to the United Nations.

See Ethiopia Watch: US bid to avert new Horn conflict.

Sudan says its Darfur court is 'competent' and would block ICC team from investigating

Last year, to avoid facing International Criminal Court prosecutors, the Sudanese government created its own court to try Darfur criminals, but had come under fire by rebels and rights groups who saw it as a deliberate bid to avoid international justice.

Understandably (surely he believes he and his henchmen's names are on UN/ICC list of 51 suspects) Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed never to hand over any Sudanese to international jurisdiction.

News 24.com report 11 January 2006 quotes Sudan's justice minister, Mohamed Ali al-Mardhi, as saying on Tuesday that Sudan courts were competent:

"We are satisfied with the competence of our judiciary and therefore we shall not allow any foreign tribunal to do this job", he said.

Asked if the international prosecutor had sent teams into Sudan to investigate, Mardhi said: "He has not asked for that and if he has done so, we will not permit such a team to do investigation in Sudan."

Note, the report states Mardhi made the comments after presiding over a ceremony in which rival tribes signed a reconciliation accord that closed a case in which 126 people of the non-Arab Burgud tribe were killed a year ago in an attack by Arab Rizaigat and Turjum tribes on Hamadah village, in Shiairiyah district, about 30km north of Nyala.

Also, Mardhi said that after the Eid Al-Fitr feast, his ministry and the judiciary would set a date for the trial of those involved in the Hamadah attack.
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African Union investigates Hamadah attack

Excerpt from UK Parliament Hansard 27 Jan 2005

"Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make representations to the Sudanese authorities on the reports of a combined attack by the Government of Sudan airforce and the Janjaweed militas upon the village of Hamada, in Southern Darfur, on 16 January. [211457]

Mr. Alexander: We have repeatedly made clear to the Government of Sudan and the rebels that they must respect the ceasefire and abide by the Abuja Protocols, including the Government's commitment to refrain from military overflights of Darfur.

The African Union is currently investigating the alleged Arab militia attack on the village of Hamadah. We await the result of its investigation."

Further reading:

Oct 1, 2005 - War crimes warnings from UN and UK on Darfur Sudan.

Oct 1, 2005 - Important African Union Statement on Security in Darfur.

South Sudan militia group unites with SPLA

Sudan Man blogs news Jan 9 of South Sudan militia group uniting with SPLA and says it is "a big story for securing the peace in Southern Sudan as the SSDF has a strong base in the oil rich Upper Nile region of the South."

Strategy Page Jan 10 says "the SSDF (South Sudan Defense Force), one of the major rebel movements in the south, had formally disbanded and many of its members have joined the SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army), the main rebel organization that has negotiated a peace deal with the government. The SPLA is now calling itself the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), a political, not military, organization."

Slovene president urges UN to warn world about catastrophe in Darfur

Slovene president Janez Drnovsek has sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and some other well-known personalities, calling upon them to warn the world about the catastrophe and to join Slovenia's humanitarian action.

Drnovsek calls upon the UN to use its mandate for measures in Darfur, to call a Security Council meeting and to immediately organize an operation which NATO could join with its big transport capacities.

"We are all responsible for what is happening, History will be our judge. No excuses will help us. Millions of innocent victims will accuse us. There is still time for action. Seize the opportunity," Drnovsek wrote in his letter addressed to Annan.

"Now it is the time; it will be too late tomorrow. Join our small Slovene humanitarian action and this will no longer be a drop in the sea, but the sea itself," he wrote in the letter.

Full report (TV Slovenia/ST) 9 Jan 2006.

Janjaweed women complicit in rape, says Amnesty report

What on earth is this? Women involved in systematic dehumanisation of women to inflict fear and force them to leave their communities, humiliating the men in their communities? Can this really be true? Amnesty International, in a report* dated 19 July 2004, says while African women in Darfur were being raped by the Janjaweed militiamen, Arab women stood nearby and sang for joy.

Read more in following excerpt from 20 July 2004 article* in The Guardian by Jeevan Vasagar and Ewen MacAskill published today 10 January 2006 by Assyrian International News Agency:

The songs of the Hakama, or the "Janjaweed women" as the refugees call them, encouraged the atrocities committed by the militiamen. The women singers stirred up racial hatred against black civilians during attacks on villages in Darfur and celebrated the humiliation of their enemies, the human rights group said.

"[They] appear to be the communicators during the attacks. They are reportedly not actively involved in attacks on people, but participate in acts of looting." Amnesty International collected several testimonies mentioning the presence of Hakama while women were raped by the Janjaweed. The report said:"Hakama appear to have directly harassed the women [who were] assaulted, and verbally attacked them."

During an attack on the village of Disa in June last year, Arab women accompanied the attackers and sang songs praising the government and scorning the black villagers.

According to an African chief quoted in the report, the singers said: "The blood of the blacks runs like water, we take their goods and we chase them from our area and our cattle will be in their land. The power of [Sudanese president Omer Hassan] al-Bashir belongs to the Arabs and we will kill you until the end, you blacks, we have killed your God."

The chief said that the Arab women also racially insulted women from the village: "You are gorillas, you are black, and you are badly dressed."

The Janjaweed have abducted women for use as sex slaves, in some cases breaking their limbs to prevent them escaping, as well as carrying out rapes in their home villages, the report said.

The militiamen "are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish", a 37-year-old victim, identified as A, is quoted as saying in the report, which was based onmore than 100 testimonies from women in the refugee camps in neighbouring Chad.

Pollyanna Truscott, Amnesty International's Darfur crisis coordinator, said the rape was part of a systematic dehumanisation of women. "It is done to inflict fear, to force them to leave their communities. It also humiliates the men in their communities."
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*Sudan Watch Editor's Note 11 January 2006: Thanks to notes I've received from Eugene Oregon of Coalition for Darfur and Eric Jon Magnuson of Passion of the Present the above item now contains links to Amnesty International's report and The Guardian article originally published July 2004. Assyrian International Agency's article is dated 10 January 2006.

Documents show Sudanese government ordered its security units to tolerate Janjaweed activities - HRW

Human Rights Watch report alleges Sudanese government documents show it was much more closely involved with the Janjaweed than it had admitted, writes Jeevan Vasagar and Ewen MacAskill in The Guardian 20 July 2004.

Note this excerpt from 10 January 2006 article at Assyrian International News Agency:

The documents, which Human Rights Watch said it had obtained from the civilian administration in Darfur and are dated February and March this year, call for "provisions and ammunition" to be delivered to known Janjaweed militia leaders, camps and "loyalist tribes".

One document orders all security units in the area to tolerate the activities of Musa Hilal, the alleged Janjaweed leader in north Darfur interviewed by the Guardian last week.

Peter Takirambudde, the executive director of Human Rights Watch's Africa division, said: "These documents show that militia activity has not just been condoned, it's been specifically supported by Sudan government officials."

The official government line is that it did not arm or support the Janjaweed, though its presence was useful in helping to combat rebels in Darfur.

Further reading

July 17, 2004 A POLICY OF FORCED EXPULSION by Eric Reeves - The Guardian found this Janjaweed leader, "dressed in a crisp white robe and prayer cap," sitting in a plush chair as he "patted his nephew's head and offered sweet pastries" (The Guardian [dateline: Khartoum] July 16, 2004). The interviewer later noted:

"In Khartoum Mr Hilal showed no fear of being arrested. There were no bodyguards and no security checks at the gates of the walled compound. When the interview concluded, he was relaxed enough to joke about the Janjaweed with the Guardian's photographer."

*Sudan Watch Editor's Note 11 January 2006: Thanks to notes I've received from Eugene Oregon of Coalition for Darfur and Eric Jon Magnuson of Passion of the Present the above item now contains links to HRW's report and The Guardian article originally published July 2004. Assyrian International Agency's article is dated 10 January 2006.

Sudan president blasts Darfur rebels

Via UPI Jan 9 - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir called on Darfur rebels to return to negotiations, accusing them of being the enemies of peace.

In a speech to the nation on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of annual pilgrimage to Mecca, al-Bashir said Tuesday, "Sudan's battle is that of development and reconstruction which necessitates great vitality, content spirits and national unity."

He stressed Sudan cannot achieve development without "abandoning warring and terrorism, preventing strife, dropping arms and forgetting enmity and hatred."

He charged, however, that certain bad-intentioned parties are seeking to incite trouble and strife.

"As battle fronts calmed down in the south of the country, new fronts were enflamed by the enemies of peace and unity in another dear part of our country, notably Darfur," he said.

He accused rebel groups in Darfur of obstructing efforts to reach a peaceful settlement in the embattled region.

"There is no more option than repentance and dropping arms and returning to wisdom in order to reach solutions at the negotiating table that would suit all the groups in Darfur," al-Bashir added.

He also vowed to end injustice in all of the country and expand an atmosphere of peace and security and peaceful coexistence between the various Sudanese factions and ethnicities.

Darfur situation very grim and getting worse over last six weeks says UN mission in Sudan

Chair of 53-nation Afiran Union (AU) block, Alpha Oumar Konare, said Saturday he was "deeply saddened" by Friday's attack on AU peacekeepers in West Darfur, close to border with Chad. Extracts from IRIN at ReliefWeb 9 Jan 2006:

One AU peacekeeper killed, ten others injured

A 30-strong Senegalese force was traveling from the town of Tine to their base in Kulbus in West Darfur, when they were ambushed, the AU said in the statement.

The attack is the second ambush against Senegalese forces since November, when four Senegalese soldiers were wounded, two seriously.

AU forces are increasingly targeted by combatants in Darfur, suffering their first casualties in October when three Nigerian soldiers were killed in another ambush.

The AU said they did not know who was behind the attack against them.

UN withdraws non-essential personnel from W Darfur

On Thursday, the UN decided to withdraw all but its essential personnel from West Darfur State, due to a build-up of armed groups on either side of the border with neigbouring Chad.

"The situation is very grim," George Somerwill, chief of public information of the UN mission in Sudan (UNMIS), said. "It has been getting worse over the last six weeks or so."

AU running out of cash for Darfur mission

Last month the AU warned they were running out of cash for the mission and appealed to the international community for more support for its 7,700 peacekeepers.

The force needs US $465 million a year to operate, but so far they only received $330 million.

Chair of AU fears Darfur crisis could spill into Sudan's neighbours - Congo's President urges international community to react

After an audience with Congo's President, the Chair of African Union (AU), Alpha Oumar Konare, said today on Congo Brazzaville State Radio an "urgent" solution must be found to crisis in Darfur to prevent a spill-over effect that could destabilise the entire region involving Sudan, Chad, West and Central Africa through the DR Congo and even the Great Lakes region.

Presidents Denis Sassou Nguesso (Congo) and Idriss Deby (Chad), urged the AU to find a quick solution to the crisis.

At last week's summit of the Economic Community of Central African States in N'djamena, Chad, Nguesso, whose country has troops in the AU peacekeeping force in Darfur, denounced rebels destabilising Chad and urged the international community to react before it was too late.

Full report (AngolaPress) Brazzaville, Congo, Jan 10, 2006.

Police contingent to Darfur yet to get AU's nod

Sources close to Point newspaper intimated that 67 police and immigration officers selected for Darfur peacekeeping mission should have been airlifted some weeks back and are yet to receive green light from AU HQ in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

As Darfur peace talks break for Muslim celebration, little progess reported - Who disarms first: Janjaweed or rebels?

Darfur peace talks making little progress break for Muslim celebration.

How are they helping the one million children beyond aid net in Darfur?



Photo: Majzoub Al-Khalifa head of Sudanese government delegation, centre, sits together with other delegates at the Sudan peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, Monday, Oct. 3 2005. (AP).

Further reading:

Oct 25, 2005 Why wait on Darfur? - UN could authorise cutting off Sudan's oil exports at Port Sudan.

Oct 24, 2005 Calling Mama Mongella - The stability of Sudan is fundamental to the whole of the African continent.

Sep 27, 2005 Who disarms first - Janjawid militia or Darfur rebels?

Sudan Year in brief 2005 - A chronology of key events.

Consensus on land rights and disarmament is essential



Photo: Photo: Members of one of the two main Darfur rebel groups Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are seen in Abuja, Nigeria November 29, 2005. Finding a consensus on land rights and disarmament is essential to advance peace talks between Sudan's government and Darfur rebels, African mediators said, although both sides were far apart on the issues. (Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters/Sudan Watch 8 Dec 2005)



Photo: Unidentified members of the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) attend Darfur peace talks in Abuja November 29, 2005.



Photo: Darfur rebel commander Salah 'Bob' (C, yellow turban) - named after the singer Bob Marley because of his distinctive dreadlocks - listens to speeches at the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) unity conference in Haskanita, in Sudan's eastern Darfur province October 29, 2005.



Photo: Sudan Liberation Army's (SLA) Secretary-General Minni Arcua Minnawi (C) speaks during the SLA unity conference in Haskanita, in Sudan's eastern Darfur province October 29, 2005. Camouflaged soldiers from Darfur's largest rebel group marched on 29 Oct 2005. Conference ended by voting Minnawi in as SLA president.



Photo: Janjaweed Postcard from Darfur.

Never again is turning into "Oh no, not again".

Digimotion Digital Album - Powerful stuff, check it out

Received a Blogger email this morning for Sudan Watch saying "Ooranos has left a new comment on your post "Chad's president says Khartoum regime is secretly exporting Darfur crisis to Chad." The comment simply said:

Have a good time.

See the comment at Sudan Watch entry Dec 5 and click onto the messsage to view what has been done with all of the images currently showing on this front page, from title banner to sidebar and latest news items.

It's powerful. Made me want to grab a microphone and read out loud the news accompanying each image - and maybe even add some quiet background music. If anyone knows how this can be done, please let me know here in comments or via email. Thanks. I use a PowerBook G4 but apart from having a new (still not used) headphone/microphone set for connecting to Skype (not yet tried) I've no other equipment.

Unfortunately, Ooranos provides no contact details. I've tried linking this entry to the piece but it does not work.

http://file01.flashbox.co.kr/client3/sample/0601/08/MDAwMDAxNTYw/digital_album.swf

How and why was the piece put together, does anyone know? Feedback on this would be much appreciated. Thank you.

PS I've just googled for Digimotion and found this: DigiMotion.sa Freelance Broadcast Graphic Creation services: 3d animation, Logo design and Titling sequence. Contact name and address given is Mr. O'Badine at digimotionsa@hotmail.com in johannesburg South Africa. As soon as I publish this post, I'll email him a link to it, and ask if he can throw any light on the above.

Darfur rebels attack AU peacekeepers, one killed, 10 wounded

Sadly, African Union (AU) peacekeepers deployed to Darfur without a full mandate to protect and no peace to keep, came under attack Friday when returning to the camps after they finished an escort mission.

One Senegalese soldier of the AU peacekeeping mission was killed and 10 others were wounded in an ambush Friday by armed Sudanese rebels in Darfur.

This is the second ambush against the AU peacekeeping forces by armed Sudanese rebels since Nov. 29, 2005, when four Senegalese soldiers were wounded.

Surely, the time has come for AU peacekeepers in Darfur to be issued Chaper 7 mandate to protect themselves and innocent civilians from the Sudanese army and rebel groups who use the lives of millions of women and children as pawns in their monstrous killing games. So far, more than 400,000 Darfuris have perished while 3 years of anarchy still reins, leaving the boys with their toys feeling free to murder and maim without fear of arrest.

World Bank suspends loans to Chad - Sudan accused of backing Chad rebels

BBC news today confirms the World Bank has suspended all loans to Chad, saying the African country's government had breached an agreement over oil revenue controls. Bank president Paul Wolfowitz announced the move, one of the most drastic the bank can take against a member country.

"We've been trying for some time to open dialogue with the government of Chad to see if the concerns that they have expressed can be addressed, and regrettably instead of engaging in dialogue they have proceeded unilaterally," Mr Wolfowitz told the Reuters news agency.

"We haven't given up on dialogue and hope in fact that perhaps if they stop and appreciate how serious the issue is from our point of view and not only from theirs, we can find some common ground," he added.



Photo: Chadian government troops gather in the town of Adre on the eastern border with Sudan December 19, 2005. (Reuters/Sudan Tribune)

Jan 6, 2005: Sudan accused of backing Chad rebels. The UN reported Thursday a troop buildup along the border between eastern Chad and Sudan's western Darfur province, saying it was reducing its mission in the region "due to the increasing instability in the affected areas."



Photo: Chadian President Idriss Deby. Chad, Africa's newest oil producer, said last month a "state of belligerence" existed between itself and Sudan and has accused Khartoum of directing last month's attacks on Adre by Chadian rebels who have vowed to topple President Idriss Deby.

Last week several Chadian rebel groups opposed to Deby - a 53 year old former army commander who himself led a revolt from the east to seize power in 1990 - announced the formation of a political and military alliance to try to oust him.

Jan 6, 2006: Chad warns Sudan after cross-border raid. Analysts say Chad's dispute with Sudan risks exacerbating an already messy regional conflict and Chad's internal problems.

"Deby clearly hopes to attract sufficient U.N. attention to current problems in the east to head off what are in fact largely domestic troubles," Chris Melville of research group Global Insight said in a report on Thursday.

UK urges support for African Union in Darfur

Britain urged stronger world support, including greater EU funding, for the African Union mission in Darfur.

Britain's UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry told reporters that a planned Security Council meeting on Sudan next week would be an opportunity to explore how to drastically improve security arrangements and the strategic outlook in Darfur this year.

"We really have now to prepare to make sure there's a total continuity of involvement by the international community," the British envoy said.

He said the council, which is scheduled to discuss Sudan on January 13, would need to explore options including turning over the peacekeeping operation in Darfur, currently operated by the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), to the UN. Full story (UN) via Sudan Tribune Jan 5, 2006.

Clandestine nuclear deals traced to Sudan - The Guardian

According to Guardian sources, Sudan has been named as a major conduit for sophisticated engineering equipment that could be used in nuclear weapons programmes - hundreds of millions of pounds of equipment was imported into Sudan over a three-year period before the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington in 2001 and has since disappeared.

Note, Western analysts and intelligence agencies suspect the equipment has been or is being traded by the nuclear proliferation racket headed by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who admitted nuclear trading two years ago and is under house arrest in Islamabad.

Full story (Guardian) by Ian Traynor and Ian Cobain in London Jan 5, 2006.

Chad's president says Khartoum regime is secretly exporting Darfur crisis to Chad

"The Khartoum regime is secretively going ahead with the recruitment of mercenaries and other elements to put into action its Machiavellian plan - the destabilization of Chad," Chadian President Deby said in opening remarks to the CEMAC mini-summit.

"These efforts at destabilization, cunningly orchestrated by Sudan, are deliberately designed to export the Darfur conflict to the subregion," he said.

"Chad has taken measures to face any aggression coming from Sudan."

Deby has accused the Khartoum regime of supporting Chadian rebels in the east, on the border with Darfur. Several new rebel groups have sprung up recently in eastern Chad, to where about 200,000 refugees from the conflict in Darfur have fled.

Deby's government declared a "state of war" with Sudan last month following an attack on a border town and has called for the African Union and international community to head off further escalation of the conflict.

Sudan has accused Chad of deploying planes and troops on its territory. - via Sudan Tribune 5 Jan 2006.

Further reading Sudan Watch 4 Jan 2006: Chad president wants Darfur put under U.N. mandate.

Chad president wants Darfur put under U.N. mandate

How interesting. Chad's President Idriss Deby urged the United Nations on Wednesday to take control of Darfur because he said Khartoum was using the conflict there to destabilise neighbouring states.

Full report (ReliefWeb/Reuters) 4 Jan 2006.

Further reading:

Jan 1 2006: Egypt, Chad discuss means to defuse tension with Sudan

Dec 31 2005: Chad angry at World Bank over oil - Chad in 'state of war' with Sudan - Chad and its links to crisis in Sudan's Darfur

Dec 31 2005: Chad steps up claims of Sudanese subversion

Egypt to deport Sudan squatters

Egypt announces plans to deport about 650 Sudanese refugees rounded up in a violent raid last week.

A spokeswoman said about 650 Sudanese, found to be "illegal immigrants" or to have "violated security conditions", would be sent home by ship on Thursday.

Earlier the UN refugee agency said it had received assurances from Egypt that refugees would not be sent home.

In pictures: Police storm Cairo camp



Photo: The protesters, who included women and children, were forced on to buses and taken away. Note the Egyptian policeman is pushing the baby back into the bus. What a horrible life. Heartbreaking. God help and bless them all.

More pictures courtesy BBC.

African leaders break silence over Mugabe's human rights abuses

President Robert Mugabe's human rights record has been condemned for the first time by African leaders, significantly increasing pressure on the Zimbabwean leader to restore the rule of law and stop evicting people from their homes.

Wow. Why could they not stretch themselves to include Sudanese leader President al-Bashir?

Full story (Guardian UK) by Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria January 4, 2006.

Nubians will be displaced from ancient seat by lake built for Merowe Dam

Far away from the war in Darfur in western Sudan, Nubian peasants in the Fourth Cataract of the Nile in northern Sudan are coming to terms with the fact that their centuries-old way of life is coming to an end soon.

'Until the Chinese actually moved into Merowe a few years ago, we all thought that all government talk about a dam was just a joke. But now we have to accept that it is becoming reality and we all have to go within the next years,' Ali Yousif Ali (47), the spokesman for the hamlet of ed Doma said.

The Merowe Dam Administration in Khartoum finally gave The Irish Times permission to visit the area over Christmas. Living conditions for the peasants on the Nile bank in the Nubian desert and the numerous islands on the Nile are still very much as they were 2000 years ago." Full story.
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Large bridged water channel



Photo: Large bridged water channel. The materials used look much better than ugly man made concrete. Maybe there are no wood eating termites in the Sudan.

Merowe Dam engineer city



Photo: Merowe Dam engineer city near the Nile's fourth cataract, where a $1.8 billion dam is to be built.

The above two photos, courtesy David Haberlah's photostream at Flickr, were taken as part of the scientific effort of the salvage archaeologist team H.U.N.E. to document the Sudanese Arab tribe of the Manasir and their cultural landscape 'Dar al-Manasir' situated at the Fourth Cararact of the River Nile.

David says the homeland of the Manasir will be submerged by the reservoir lake of the Hamdab High Dam (Merowe Multi-Purpose Hydro Project) in the very near future and all inhabitants have to be relocated by the Sudanese government.

See 4th Nile Cataract Sudan 2003 - another of David's photoset on Flickr.

Further reading

May 2, 2005 Sudan Watch: The Merowe/Hamadab Dam Project.

Can bloggers change the world?

Excerpt from The Times Online Dec 23, 2005:

In 1999 there were some 50 bloggers on the web; today there are more than 23 million. In Iran, which seen a huge surge in this area, and where reformist newspapers have been closed down and many editors imprisoned, blogs offer a huge opportunity for dissent and discussion. On the other hand, many can be inaccurate, hysterical, or just plain boring. Do you read blogs? How important are they in keeping free speech alive - and can they change the world? Read the article and send us your views using the form below. Your replies will be posted here. Also: visit the Times Online weblogs. Full story.

Sudan to close its embassy in Baghdad - official

This is interesting - via Passion of the Present:

Sudan to close its embassy in Baghdad - official

UN warns of growing catastrophe in Sudan

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned on Thursday that the security situation in Darfur continued to deteriorate.

In his latest monthly report on Darfur, he called it a "deeply disturbing trend" with "devastating effects on the civilian population".

"Civilians continue to pay an intolerably high price as a result of recurrent fighting by warring parties, the renewal of the scorched earth tactics by militia and massive military action by the government," he said in the report released on 29 December.



Photo: The destroyed village of Kamungo just east of Kabkabiya town, North Darfur State. (IRIN)

Some 3.4 million people continue to be affected by the conflict, according to the UN, of whom 1.8 million are internally displaced and 200,000 have fled to neighbouring Chad.

Note the Financial Times Jan 2, 2006 provides an excellent summary of Darfur news over past few months:

A new wave of violence in Sudan's Darfur region is a "shocking indication" of the international community's collective failure to stem "horrendous crimes" there, the United Nations has warned, amid daily reports that the killings continue unabated.

Despite regular Security Council discussions and an African Union (AU) mission, a new UN report says: "Large-scale attacks against civilians continue, women and girls are being raped by armed groups, yet more villages are being burned, and thousands more are being driven from their homes."

Its findings leave few doubts that the world's efforts to stem Sudan's catastrophe are not working, despite its leaders' assertion at last year's UN summit that all nations bore a "responsibility to protect" civilians from crimes against humanity. Full report.

Further details can be found by scrolling through Sudan Watch archives November and December 2005.

Southern Sudan govt condemns refugees massacre in Egypt

LA Times reports the death toll from Egypt's violent clearing of a Sudanese refugees camp rose to at least 27 on Jan 1 as a presidential spokesman expressed sorrow.



Photo: Egyptian riot police surround and attack Sudanese men and women during a forceful evacuation of thousands of Sudanese refugees on their third month protest outside UN offices in Cairo, Dec 29, 2005 (AFP/ST)

According to the Khartoum Monitor, a 4,000 strong force of Egypt's riot police had attacked hundreds of Sudanese families resulting in a death toll of 35 including women and children.

The report says the government of Southern Sudan is demanding explanations from both the Egyptian Government and the UNHCR as to why a peaceful demonstration should have led to such extreme measures of brutality resulting in unnecessary deaths and injuries.



Photo: Some Sudanese protesters praying as they were sprayed with water canon during a forceful evacuation of thousands of Sudanese refugees on their third month protest outside UN offices in Cairo, Dec 30, 2005 (AFP/ST)

Further reading:
Jan 1, 2006 Sudan Watch - The Slow Death of Darfurians out of Sight in Egypt.

Pope urges UN to face its responsibilities and calls for protection of rights of people in crisis in Darfur

Times of Oman January 1, 2006 prints AFP report saying Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday called on the UN to live up to its responsibilities and promote justice, solidarity and peace in the world.

The world must show "courage and faith in God and mankind to choose the path of peace," said the head of the Roman Catholic Church in his first New Year's message from the Vatican. In his appeal the pope included "everybody -- individuals, peoples, international organizations and world powers".

The United Nations in particular "must again be aware of its responsibilities to promote the values of justice, solidarity and peace, in a world more and more marked by the huge phenomenon of globalization," he said at Saint Peter's Basilica.

In the message in which the pope traditionally focuses on the world's trouble spots, Benedict called for protection of the rights of people "experiencing tragic humanitarian crises, such as those in Darfur and other regions of central Africa."

Sudanese Islamist leader Turabi attacks foreign presence

BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum files a report today saying veteran Sudanese Islamist leader Turabi attacks foreign presence. Note Mr Turabi shows no compassion for the millions of Sudanese driven from their homes and forced to flee for their lives from the government's militia:

"Look at Sudan now - it has tens of militias independent of the army. And we have so many African armies here... and other armies of the United Nations," Mr Turabi said.

"We don't have an army here. We have a record of how many armies you have in one country. Would you call that independence?"

Further reading
Dec 10, 2005 Sudan Watch: Sudanese islamist Turabi, is back on the scene.

Egypt, Chad discuss means to defuse tension with Sudan

Egypt's Foreign Minister conferred Saturday with a visiting Chadian delegation on means of defusing the current tension between Chad and Sudan.

The Slow Death of Darfurians out of Sight in Egypt

Sudanese refugees and migrants, pictured below, stand defiantly as Egyptian security troops fire water cannons on them before storming the protest camp housing hundreds of Sudanese where they had lived for three months demanding resettlement outside of Egypt, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday.


(CP/AP/Ben Curtis/Yahoo)

Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, founded by leaders of the representatives of the Massaleit Community in Exile (RMCE) asks the UN and the international community to:

"Provide immediate aid to the Sudanese refugees, many of whom are homeless and lack basic necessities such as food and protection. UNHCR should continue to protect refugees until conditions in Sudan allow their return in security and with dignity. That protection must include the usual resettlement activities. If Egypt provided protection, including protection from hunger, refugees would not think of moving to other countries. Some refugees crave resettlement in third countries as a way to enhance protection, since the options of staying in Egypt or being forced to return to Sudan provide them with no hope for their future lives."

Damanga advocates for the human rights of the people of Darfur and for the preservation of their ethnic communities. Damanga seeks guarantees of equality, freedom and democracy for the people of Sudan and elsewhere in the world.



Photo: Human Rights Watch counsel Jamera Rone listens to Western Darfur native Mohamed Yahya, Damanga's Chairman, talk about the genocide in Darfur at the University of Virginia, School of Law.

Read 'The Slow Death of Darfurians out of Sight in Egypt' authored by Leben Nelson Moro, a D.Phil. candidate at University of Oxford, UK and Gamal Abdel Rahman Adam, a PhD candidate at York University, Canada.

More photos - Sudanese refugees protest UN policies in Cairo, Egypt



Photo: Egyptian riot policemen storm the protest camp housing hundreds of Sudanese refugees where they had lived for three months demanding resettlement outside of Egypt, after firing water cannons at the site in Cairo, Egypt Friday, Dec. 30, 2005. After a night-long standoff during which the camp was surrounded by thousands of riot police, the security forces charged in wielding batons and sticks. (AP/Ben Curtis)

See post and pictures at Opinionated Voice and photoset on Flickr created by Fahamu and Pambazuka News.



Photo: Sudanese refugees and migrants stand with their makeshift tents behind rows of Egyptian security troops who fired water cannons on them. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis/Yahoo)



Photo: A Sudanese man is beaten by Egyptian riot police. Egypt is under fire over the deaths of 25 Sudanese refugees after riot police wielding sticks and water cannon forcibly removed hundreds of demonstrators camped outside UN offices in Cairo. (AFP/Cris Bouroncle)

U.N. refugee agency will repatriate 60,000 refugees to S Sudan by May?



Photo: Jean-Marie Fakhouri, the head of operations in Sudan for the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees tells journalists in Nairobi, Kenya Monday Dec. 19, 2005, that the U.N. refugee agency will repatriate about 60,000 refugees to southern Sudan by May. He said that it could take up to five years to repatriate all 560,000 southern Sudanese refugees in seven neighboring countries Central African Republic, Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi/Yahoo).

Probe into deaths of 23 Sudanese refugees at Cairo camp

January 1, 2006 Washington Post report excerpt:

"New York-based Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation into the deaths, which took place near the Cairo offices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The United Nations had said the Sudanese were mostly economic migrants, not people in danger of persecution if they went home.

'President Hosni Mubarak should urgently appoint an independent commission to investigate the use of force by police against Sudanese migrants,' Human Rights Watch said.

'The high loss of life suggests the police acted with extreme brutality. . . . A police force acting responsibly would not have allowed such a tragedy to occur,' said Joe Stork, deputy director of the group's Middle East division.

Eleven Egyptian groups blamed the Interior Ministry for the events and also called for an inquiry.

The ministry 'knows no way to deal with people, whether citizens or refugees, other than by beating, crushing, extrajudicial killing, or transfer to illegal detention centres,' the groups said in a joint statement.

Presidential spokesman Soleiman Awad said Egypt had no choice but to intervene and said the UNHCR office had asked authorities three times to break up the sit-in."

Further reading Dec 30, 2005 Sudan Watch: Darfur genocide continues into 4th year - Ten Sudanese die as camp in Cairo stormed

Kidnapped Sudanese 'free' in Iraq

Five kidnapped members of staff from Sudan's embassy in Iraq have been set 'free' in Iraq. A web statement attributed to al-Qaeda in Iraq had demanded that Sudan cut diplomatic ties with Baghdad.

Chad steps up claims of Sudanese subversion

Further to next post here below, AFP Dec 30 reports that "Sudan is arming, financing and equipping Chadian rebels on its territory to destabilise Chad," Chad's Deputy FM Lucienne Dillah told parliament in Ndjamena, which then voted to back President Idriss Deby's efforts to defend the country.

Chad angry at World Bank over oil - Chad in 'state of war' with Sudan - Chad and its links to crisis in Sudan's Darfur

Some days my imagination works overtime wondering about the possibility of security forces diplomatically (read covertly) intervening in Darfur via Chad using international community clout, Chadian personnel and Sudanese refugees. This is one of those days. It's a recurrent thought whenever Chad and other countries neighbouring Sudan hit the headlines.

A curious story has been developing over the past few months re a World Bank loan to Chad of more than $39m (23m pounds) to build a pipeline with an estimated total cost of almost $4bn. The loan was on condition that Chad's churches, trade unions and non-governmental organisations monitored how oil revenues were spent. This was meant to guarantee that oil money was used to help reduce poverty in Chad.

Today, the BBC reports on Chad's angry reaction to warnings from the World Bank, after its parliament voted to relax controls on the use of its oil revenues. The Chadian government has accused the World Bank of acting like a coloniser.

The new laws introduced by Chad's parliament would give its country more control over the money.

Note, Chad's oil pipeline is barely two years old.

Further reading:
Dec 24, 2005 Sudan Watch: Chad in 'state of war' with Sudan
Dec 21, 2005 Sudan Watch: Chad and its links to crisis in Sudan's Darfur

Arab and African leaders to Darfur: we don't care

"The Sudan story is chilling as it shows the real nature of Islam", writes one commentator at Harry's Place (UK) re Gene's Dec 30 Darfur post entitled Arab and African leaders to Darfur: we don't care - excerpt:

"If the West's shamefully half-hearted response to the continuing genocide, and China's and Russia's obstruction of UN sanctions against Sudan, haven't outraged you yet, now comes the news that the Arab League and the African Union will hold upcoming summit meetings in the Sudanese capital Khartoum."

So far, Gene's post has attracted 95 comments, the most I've ever seen on a blog entry on Darfur. Here are some examples:

Stuart:

"African governments never criticize each other. To expect them to intervene successfully is foolhardy. Even the lauded rulers of states such as Uganda and Ethiopia are now jailing oppostion members and attempting to futher cement their rule. In the forty years since colonial withdrawal Africa's 48 sub-saharan states have produced one substantive statesman in Nelson Mandela. Is it too much to hope for just one more in 2006."

Daffersd:

"People refuse to speak the truth because no one wishes to be seen as anti-Islamic, especially not at the UN."

In 1948 the UN declared the UDHR, now we have an Islamic UDHR which is a complete contradiction of the UDHR. Now we have the UN promoting religions and their value systems over and above the UDHR.

Are we happy to see the value system of Islam, promoted above the UDHR?

We have the obscene sight of the EU and the UN attacking the Danish PM for refusing to intervene in a dispute over cartoons, he declared that it was not correct for a PM in a free country to intervene over what the press prints, if they broke any laws sue them. It is evident that they prefer to put pressure on in an undemocratic way rather then face the issue in court over a point of law.

At this point I think that the most important defence of our freedom, the ability to speak up about something in safety from fear of death or persecution is being eroded.

Islam is a religion (not to me, it's a death cult), but it also has a system of law and government which I can only describe as undemocratic and allows the strong and powerful to rule the weak and poor. I hope that more people see this, especially the liberty loving and equality driven people on the left.

Dafur shows the moral corruption to the world of Islam, but most people chose to ignore it."

Tom:

"So wtf are you saying? Because atrocities have happened in every century on every continent and didn't involve Muslims, then the genocide and other atrocities carried out in Dafur should not be viewed in a religious ie 'Muslim' context. An interesting notion ! rather like an ostrich's view of danger...me thinks."

Ami:

"You mentioned Zimbabwe, Alec. What does the world's inaction there have in common with Darfur? (Of course there are multiple factors, so leave aside for now other common or country specific factors)

Answer: China, the winner so far in the new scramble for Africa Both cases, China has blocked any Security Council resolutions.

In Darfur's case, it really is all about oil.Zimbabwe,semiprecious metals an economic power.
http://www-hjs.pet.cam.ac.uk/sections/africa/document.2005-05-09.6105323022

No doubt it suits other powers to have China doing the blocking, but there are those in the U.S and elsewhere who genuinely would intervene if there was Security Council authority."

Note, this Sudan Watch post opened with an extract from a comment by Daffersd. Here is the whole comment:

"That Sudan story is chilling as it shows the real nature of Islam, but no one seems to listen, it can't happen here in the West can it? We will find out I guess..."