Splintering of rebel groups? Nur's forces captured aid workers? UN helicopter crashes near Golo, West Darfur

The African Union claims the SLA attacked the government-held town of Golo earlier this week, reports Reuters today. About 60 aid workers have since been evacuated:

"A UN helicopter crashed today near Golo in the Jebel Marra area where fighting has been taking place, a UN statement said ... one UN source said the aircraft made a forced landing because of a problem with its rotor."

In news here below, UN envoy Jan Pronk is quoted by a Chinese news agency as saying, "I will not tolerate if Nur's forces captured those humanitarian workers" ... and that he could not know whether the cause of the helicopter crash was mechanical or shot by particular circles, adding the UN mission in Sudan would deliver a statement later.

Darfur rebel groups appear to be splitting in a dangerous way, making peace talks impossible. JEM rebel leader Khalil Ibrahim is quoted in a Reuters report yesterday as saying:

"Of course we will continue on peace talks. We expect the problem of Darfur to be solved next year."

Updates

Jan 25, 2006 Xinhuanet says at least four international relief workers were slightly injured and a Sudanese is missing. Apparently, the UN helicopter exploded in an emergency landing, a UN source in Khartoum told Xinhua. Earlier, Jan Pronk said the crash took place while it was attempting to evacuate 36 UN relief workers, including some Sudanese nationals, following violent fighting in the area. Excerpt:

He said that he has just learned about the crash of the chopper and could not know whether the cause of the accident was mechanical or shot by particular circles, adding the UN mission in Sudan would deliver a statement later when any information on the accident is available.

Pronk expressed his concern of what was taking place in Gebel Marra where 73 non-governmental organizations are operating, stressing the need to "evacuate the humanitarian workers this day". The UN official added that he informed Abdu-al wahid Mohammed Nur, one of the two rivals of the Sudan Liberation Movement [aka SLA], whose group controls the area, to commit to the ceasefire and to stop military operations there.

"I will not tolerate if Nur's forces captured those humanitarian workers," said Pronk.

- - -

Further reading:

Jan 12, 2006 Sudan peace deal 'bad' for Darfur. - BBC

Jan 24, 2006 SLA rebels launch attack in Golo, West Darfur.

Jan 25, 2006 Reuters/Gulf Times Rebels raid Darfur town - US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said about six soldiers were killed in the attack, in an area controlled by an SLA leader, Abdul Wahid Mohamed el-Nur.

Aljazeera carries same report quoting Jendayi Frazer as saying, "Golo has been a focus for tension as it is now in government hands, but overlooked by hills which are a rebel stronghold. "It suggests we really need to speed up the talks - it's a very fragile situation. This is bad and ... it points towards a splintering of the rebel movements."

Jan 25, 2006 M&C News (1st Update) - A source working for the Irish humanitarian aid organization GOAL said that the helicopter crash killed one passenger and left 10 others in a critical condition. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the helicopter was carrying as many as 35 passengers.

Jan 25, 2006 RTE Ireland Sudanese aid worker killed in air crash - 25-year-old Hadja Hamid was being evacuated with other Goal workers following an escalation of violence in the Jebel Mara area of Darfur in recent days. Four others were able to escape to safety from the UN helicopter, which crashed shortly after take-off. Miss Hamid was Sudanese and had been working for Goal for the past six months on the agency's supplementary feeding programme.

Jan 26, 2006 Rebels battling for Darfur town - BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum says international community has changed tack. Sudanese government used to be generally blamed for the violence but now the US has condemned the rebels for launching their twin offensives. Peace talks in Nigeria have been complicated by rows between different rebel groups and factions.

Jan 27, 2006 Washington File report - US condemns the rebel SLA's attacks on village of Golo and a police convoy in West Darfur on January 23, which killed and wounded a large number of Sudanese Armed Forces personnel.

In a written statement released January 25, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the attacks "unwarranted and violations of the cease-fire agreement. Their perpetrators must be held accountable," he said. McCormack went on to "commend the African Union Mission in Sudan for its response in both of these incidents, particularly its assistance to humanitarian workers caught in the midst of the fighting."
- - -

SLA Chairman Abdel-Wahid Mohammad al-Nur

Julie Flint is the author, with Alex de Waal, of "Darfur: A Short History of a Long War," (Zed books, October 2005). Note this excerpt from commentary she wrote for The Daily Star November 15, 2005:

Eighteen months ago, Minawi attempted to "re-unite" the SLA by force when he attacked the mountain stronghold of his rival, SLA Chairman Abdel-Wahid Mohammad al-Nur. He failed. His attack on Marajan appears to have been the first blow in a second attempt to unite the SLA by force. He perhaps hoped that Marajan's abduction would go unnoticed amid the attention focused on his "unity" conference at Haskanita in North Darfur - organized without the consent of the SLA chairman. The conference elected Minawi leader of the SLA - with 411 votes for and 222 abstentions, despite the fact that it was, in large part, a gathering of the faithful.

However, the conference backfired. It was opposed not only by Abdel-Wahid's Fur supporters and the Arab tribes sympathetic to him, but by many of Minawi's own Zaghawa commanders, who perceive him as favoring his own Ila Digen clan (Awlad Digayn, in Arabic) over all others. It pushed his deputy chief of staff, Bakhit Karima, into open opposition. Over the weekend, Hassan Abashir, the SLA commander in charge of heavy weapons, announced that he too has withdrawn his support from Minawi.

Sudan's SLA rebels launch attack in Golo, West Darfur

According to Reuters Jan 24 the SLA launched an offensive on Golo yesterday and the Sudanese government reacted a senior African Union official was reported as saying without giving details.

The report explains Golo is a government held town in the central Jabel Marra region of Darfur that has changed hands several times in the three-year conflict.

Note, on Dec 28, 2005 ReliefWeb published a UN news report saying a number of roads in the Jabal Marra area were declared "go" areas for UN agencies on Dec, 22 2005 and that since early 2004 UN agencies had access only to Gilgo, Golo, Turrah and Rokerro by air, limiting the amount of support the UN agencies could give to NGOs in the region.

Map of Jabal Marra, West Darfur, Sudan



Click for larger image. Map courtesy HIC Field Atlas.
For map of Sudan see http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/sudan.pdf
For placename index see Darfur, Sudan Map.
For map of oil concessions see sidebar here at Sudan Watch.

Fur clan in the Jabal Marra area

UK Parliament Select Committee on International Development DRDC report Nov 2004 explains that western parts of Darfur, including the fertile landscapes surrounding the Jabal Marra massive, are the traditional home of the sedentary African groups such as Fur, Massaleet and other non-Arab tribes, and:

"It should be noted that rebellion against the government policies in Darfur started in reality in 1992 when the late Mr Daoud Yahya Bolad, a one time leading member of the ruling party of General El Bashier, became aware of the government complicity in the campaign of destruction that targets the African tribes of Darfur. Mr Bolad quietly broke ranks with the government, forged a link with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army and Movement (SPLA/M) and started organising members of his Fur clan in the Jabal Marra area. He was able to establish a western faction of the SPLA/M and get the support of some followers in the western parts of Darfur. Mr Bolad was speedily arrested and summarily executed by the security forces in 1992 and consequently his movement ceased to exist."

- - -

National Movement for Reform and Development

This excerpt from Eric Reeves' analysis March 17, 2005 mentions a third Darfuri rebel group NMRD:

"Reuters recently reports (dispatches of March 14 and 16, 2005) on fighting between Khartoum's forces and the National Movement for Reform and Development (a third Darfuri rebel movement) in the Jabel Moun area of West Darfur. The Darfur Relief and Documentation Center (Geneva) has also recently reported in detail on intense fighting in the same area, and gives a much fuller sense of the impact of fighting on humanitarian operations:

"Lawlessness, banditry activities, violence and the threat of violence are rampant in the region with serious implications on the situation of food security in many affected areas especially in the Jabal Marra massive and Jabal Moun in West Darfur."

- - -

Reminder of killing of AU soldier in West Darfur

British government Press Release Jan 9, 2006: The Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn, and the Foreign Office Minister for Africa, Lord Triesman, have condemned the killing of an African Union Mission soldier in Sudan (AMIS), in an attack in West Darfur, Sudan, on 6 January by unknown assailants. Ten AMIS soldiers were also injured in the attack.

BBC World Service Trust launches radio project in Darfur

Good news from the BBC in a Press Release 23 Jan 2006:

BBC World Service Trust has launched "Darfur Salaam", a humanitarian radio programme for Darfur in Sudan to be broadcast at 8.00am local time on the new BBC frequency of 11820 kHz and repeated at 8.00pm on 9640 kHz.

The first edition aired on Friday 20 January 2006.



Photo: Darfur lifeline radio production team. This great project is being funded by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) and the Ford Foundation.

For further information visit the BBC World Service Trust website:
www.bbcworldservicetrust.org

Sudan withdraws candidacy for AU presidency

[Update Jan 24: Congo named head of AU. See Sudan Watch post Jan 23 President of Congo (Brazzaville) to succeed Obasanjo as AU chair]

Jan 23: According to news just in from SAPA/DPA, Sudan has said it was withdrawing its candidacy for the position of African Union (AU) chairman following protests by human rights groups and several African heads of state.



Jan 23 BBC confirms Sudan is prepared to drop its bid to chair the AU to avoid splits within the organisation, Sudan's presidential adviser has said.

"We don't want to make any cracks. If that means Sudan should withdraw, we will," Mustafa Osman Ismail said, as AU leaders met at a summit in Khartoum.

Photo: The Chairman of the AU, President Olusegun Obasanjo, right, in a jovial mood as he jokes with, from left, Omar Bongo President of Gabon, Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa and President of Comoros Azail Assoumani, second right after the opening of the summit. (AP/ST Sudan offers to withdraw its bid to head AU)

Peace talks between parties to the conflict in Darfur ground to a halt today as rebel delegations withdrew to await the result of President al-Bashir's bid to win the chairmanship of the AU.



Photo (AP/Sayyid Azim): Chairman of the AU, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo (L) with President of Sudan Omar Al-Bashir, after the opening of the summit in Khartoum, Sudan, Monday, Jan. 23, 2006.

The chairmanship of the AU traditionally goes to the country hosting the summit. That would make the next chairman Sudanese President el-Bashir, a military coup leader accused of fueling the conflict in Darfur that has killed some 400,000 people in three years, displaced 2 million and spilled over into neighboring Chad.



Photo: South African President Thabo Mbeki attends the official opening of the summit. Five African leaders have asked Sudan to withdraw its bid to head the AU because the appointment could sink Darfur peace talks and dent the group's credibility. (Reuters/Antony Njuguna)



Photo: Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso listens to the official opening of the summit. Sudan, which is under fire for rights abuses, wants to succeed Nigeria at the two-day summit. (Reuters/Antony Njuguna/Yahoo)



Photo: Sudan's vice president Salva Kiir Mayardit (L) chats with Libyan president Mohammed Gadafi during the official opening of the summit. (Reuters/Antony Njuguna)

UN Humanitarian Intervention in Darfur: Prospect or Posturing?

Note Eric Reeves' latest analysis January 21, 2006. [via Coalition for Darfur - US Works to Delete Senior Members of NIF From Sanctions List]

Sudan spent GBP 15m on villas for two-day African Union summit in Khartoum

On Friday Jan 20 African Union chief executive Alpha Oumar Konare opened final preparations for the AU summit in Sudan by urging both parties to the country's Darfur conflict to be serious about peace.

This morning, AU chairman, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo declared the opening of the summit.

According to today's Telegraph, Sudan spent GBP 15m on building 40 villas to house Africa's presidents for 48 hours.

Meanwhile, India has given a $392m loan to Sudan in two lines of credit through Export-Import Bank (EXIM) for setting up a 500 MW power plant and a transmission line project in Sudan.



Photo: African summit room conference in Khartoum (AFP/File/Kambou Sia/ST)

Xinhua Jan 23 says the summit has drawn more than 30 African leaders. Delegates will discuss issues of education, culture and science but the status of peace and security on the continent and issues concerning UN reform are also considered to be on the top agenda:

"In his welcome address, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir pledged to work with Sudan's neighbors and other African countries to maintain peace and stability on the continent.

He said as one of the founding members of the Organization of African Unity, AU's predecessor, Sudan has played an important role in the continent's unity and integration, adding that with its unique geographical location, it can also act as a link between Africa and the Arab world.

Al-Bashir also called for the continuation of the AU mission in Sudan's troubled western region of Darfur, saying that only in this way can Africa prove its capability in resolving internal conflicts."

Note, Egypt's Mubarak will not attend the summit because he has a cold.



Photo: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (R) is received by Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir (L) as he arrives at Khartoum international airport to attend the summit. (AFP/Gianluigi Guercia/Yahoo)



Photo: Gabon's President Omar Bongo (C) arrives at Khartoum international airport to attend the summit. (AFP/Gianluigi Guercia/Yahoo)



Photo: Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza (R) is received by Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir (L) as he arrives at Khartoum international airport to attend the summit. (AFP/Gianluigi Guercia/Yahoo)

Further reading:

Jan 20, 2006 Bio: General Omar Hasan Ahmed al-Bashir, President of the Republic of Sudan - and the African Union? - see footnotes:

Jan 17, 2006: Khartoum rushes to transform itself AU summit to be held in Khartoum Jan 23-24, 2006

Dec 30, 2005: Sudan buys presidential yacht for AU summit.

President of Congo (Brazzaville) to succeed Obasanjo as AU chair - diplomatic sources

AngolaPress says Congolese president Denis Sassou-Nguesso might succeed Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo as chairman of the African Union (AU) the state-owned Radio Congo reported Sunday, quoting "diplomatic sources".

And Congolese Prime Minister Isidore Mvouba added weight to the report Sunday when he told a press briefing here "it is not impossible President Nguesso could succeed president Obasanjo tomorrow (Monday) as head of the African Union".



Photo (Wikepedia): Jacques Chirac (R) and Denis Sassou-Nguesso president (1979-92, 1997-) of Congo (Brazzaville)

See Sudan Tribune report Jan 23 Congo's Sassou Nguesso favoured as next AU chairman.
- - -

Kenya to back Sudan nomination for AU chairmanship

Director of the Horn of Africa Department at the Kenyan Foreign Ministry, Ambassador David Mulem, has affirmed his country's keenness to support the nomination of Sudan for the chairmanship of the African Union.
- - -

UPDATE

Jan 24, 2006 Aljazeera.Net Congo granted AU chairmanship - "It's Congo," a delegate inside the meeting of heads of state and foreign ministers told Reuters by phone. A second delegate confirmed the decision on Tuesday.

Jan 24, 2006 CNN publishes AP report Congo to head AU,� Sudan withdraws - Sudan has withdrawn from the competition to lead the African Union amid criticism of its human rights record, a government spokesman said Tuesday. Diplomats said the presidency would go to the Republic of Congo.

Jan 24, 2006 BBC confirms Congo named to head African Union - Congo-Brazzaville has been chosen to head the African Union, after Sudan withdrew its bid for the leadership at the AU summit in Khartoum.

Jan 24, 2006 Reuters says Sudan's Foreign Ministry said Sudan would take over the AU chairmanship in 2007 after Congo's term ends - AU picks Congo as head, Sudan to follow - official -"They are all congratulating the Congolese president now," a delegate at the AU summit in Khartoum told Reuters by telephone. Other delegates confirmed the choice.

Janjaweed a fabrication says Sudanese President al-Bashir

From the BBC Monitoring Service - via Coalition for Darfur with thanks - excerpt from report by Sudanese independent Al-Mashahir, January 19, 2006:

Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir has denied the existence of the so-called Janjawid militias in the war-torn Darfur region and said this was a fabrication by the media. He said the armed groups obtained their weapons from outside Sudan and most conflicts in Darfur were over natural resources such as water and pastures.

In an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau, Al-Bashir accused extremist Christian circles in the US Congress and the Zionist lobby of influencing the US Congress against Sudan.

Al-Bashir asked foreign powers not to interfere in the Darfur conflict pointing out that there was no genocide there.

See Sudan's Janjaweed largely controlled West Darfur but were not present at Darfur peace talks - Why not?

Obasanjo supports Sudan to chair AU: official?

Chinese news agency Xinhua says according Al-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik, Sudan's minister of information and communication, Khartoum has obtained support from AU chairman Olusegun Obasanjo:

"We have very strong relations with Nigeria and we hope that Obasanjo will play a role as a wise man in Africa to support Sudan's competition for the chairmanship," said al-Zahawi.

Let's hope Mr Obasanjo will play a role as a wise man in Africa by continuing to chair the AU.

Sudan's Janjaweed largely controlled West Darfur but were not present at Darfur peace talks - Why not?

The seventh round of Darfur peace talks has proved to be totally de-linked from what is going on in the field, says Gemmo Lodesani, UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for North Sudan.

"Out of three areas [under discussion in the Nigerian capital, Abuja] there is only one area that is moving - wealth sharing," he told IRIN in an interview January 20, 2006.

"Security is the area that should have been tackled last year because if you have a logical sequence of discussion, there should be security, power sharing and wealth sharing," he added.



Photo: Gemmo Lodesani, UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for North Sudan, says too little progress is being made in the current round of Darfur peace talks yet violence against civilians, aid workers and African Union troops continues on the ground. (Shannon Egan/IRIN)

Note, in the interview Lodesani also drew attention to the ongoing insecurity in southern Sudan, which he said needed to be addressed urgently. The Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), for example, had increased its attacks in recent months, jeopardising the safety of civilians and aid workers in the region. "There is a serious threat to security in the south. In my opinion, there is a need to beef up security," he noted.

He also noted that the talks had not considered mounting tension between Sudan and neighbouring Chad which are blaming each other for cross-border incursions. Chadian president, Idriss Deby, has announced that he will not participate in the African Union summit in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, next week.

The Abuja talks also ignored the very high level of insecurity in West Darfur State, he said, and the fact that Arab militias largely controlled West Darfur, but were not present at the talks.

[Sudan Watch Ed: Why not? Here's why: The Sudanese government represents the Arab militias aka Janjaweed. See Darfur genocide - You cannot say you did not know]

Ethiopia and Egypt support Sudan's AU chairmanship - An open letter to Sudanese President al-Bashir

An article in today's Financial Times says African leaders face credibility test at Khartoum summit. Excerpt:

When African leaders gather in Khartoum on Monday for the African Union summit the theme of their two-day meeting will be education and culture. Both subjects fit easily with the AU's vision of promoting the "socio-economic integration" of the world's poorest continent.

Yet the AU's sixth summit has the potential to be its most controversial and looks set to test the credibility of the organisation. It could also provide an examination of whether Africa's leaders have genuinely bought into the idea of a new order on their continent.

Essentially, African leaders will be in a position to make judgments on their peers; deciding whether Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the oft-criticised Sudanese president, should become Africa's top diplomat; and how a legal case against Hissene Habre, the former Chadian dictator accused of atrocities, should proceed.

Full story.



Photo: Hissene Habre's regime is accused of torture and political murder - see BBC report Nov 15, 2005 Chad arrest comes after 15 years: The pressure group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has welcomed the arrest of Hissene Habre, former president of Chad and the man it calls the "African Pinochet". Mr Habre took power in 1982 after a long military campaign and was in turn overthrown in a coup d'etat in 1990 by the current president of Chad, Idriss Deby.

Note, a Reuters report Jan 20, 2006 says Chad has opposed the candidacy of Sudan's President as chairman of the African Union. Mr Deby is boycotting the AU summit to start on Monday, instead sending his foreign minister, and Deby accuses Sudan of supporting the rebels, a charge Khartoum denies, arguing that he is trying to deflect attention away from internal problems. Chad also says it is in a "state of belligerence" with Sudan.

A Sudanese state security source said 20 mostly Chadian men were arrested on Thursday, including Abdelwahit About.
- - -

Ethiopia and Egypt support Sudan's AU chairmanship

Ethiopia strongly rejects internationalization of Darfur crisis, said Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin on Friday. Mesfin said Ethiopia is keen on helping Sudan to overcome the crisis by peaceful means, noting that the issue is a local one.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit says Egypt supports Sudan's AU chairmanship. Gehit described Sudanese-Egyptian relations as excellent and pointed out that there are no obstacles impeding the relations between the two countries. (ST) Jan 21, 2006.
- - -

Message to Khartoum

If it were possible, this blog author and many Sudan Watch readers would sign their names to this open letter published in today's Sudan Tribune:

To His Excellency, Omar al-Bashir President of The Sudan, January 20, 2006:

Dear Mr. President:

As advocates for a just and lasting peace for all Sudanese, we are concerned that if Sudan accepts the leadership of the African Union in the immediate future, it will have a negative impact on the fragile Darfur peace process. Therefore we encourage you, Mr. President, to graciously decline that position at this time. You have stated your desire to see a cessation of the conflict and resulting humanitarian distress in the western region of your nation. Perhaps this can happen in the next year if those talks in Nigeria continue.

Since Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has so ably discharged the responsibilities of the office, he may be the best person to continue in that position at this sensitive time.

We ask you to step aside at this time to demonstrate the sincerity with which you seek peace and to avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest.

Sincerely,

William D. Andress, Jr.
Moderator, Sudan Advocacy Action Forum

Darfur rebel SLM-JEM announce new alliance

AFP report confirms the two main rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), announced on Friday they were merging to create a single alliance under the name, the Alliance of Revolutionary Forces of West Sudan," they said in a press statement.



Photo: Khalil Ibrahim, president of the JEM, told reporters "To lose time without uniting our efforts means extending the days of the (Khartoum) regime which has become a factor in the disintegration of the regime." (AFP/ST)

Note this excerpt from Darfur Information:

Dr Khalil Ibrahim, a protege of Islamist hardliner Dr Hasan al-Turabi. Formed in November 2002, JEM is increasingly recognised as being part and parcel of Dr Turabi's Popular Congress. Time magazine has described JEM as "a fiercely Islamic organisation said to be led by Hassan al-Turabi" and that Turabi's ultimate goal is "the presidential palace in Khartoum and a stridently Islamic Sudan". [2] Khalil is a long-time associate of Turabi's and served as a state minister in Darfur in the early 1990s before serving as a state cabinet-level advisor in southern Sudan. Ibrahim was a senior member of the Islamist movement's secret military wing. The International Crisis Group has noted that "Khalil Ibrahil ... is a veteran Islamist and former state minister who sided with the breakaway (Popular Congress) in 2002 and went into exile in the Netherlands. There is additionally evidence of some level of involvement of al-Qaeda with the Islamist JEM organisation.

Photo: A member of JEM seen here in 2004.

Excerpt from IRIN IRIN report 26 Nov 2003:

"Our objective is to improve the quality of life for the whole of Sudan," said Khalil, adding that Darfur was "just a starting point". He said the JEM and SLM/A had similar objectives, but the JEM had "a broader base" with troops and supporters stationed in Kordofan and other areas.

Since mid-November, heavy fighting has reportedly taken place in western Darfur between the JEM, and the government and militia groups operating in the region.

According to Ibrahim many of the militias are from Chad, and are being paid by Sudanese elements to fight and loot Sudanese property.

Photo: SLA President Minni Minnawi in truck. Click on image for further details.

Note, on September 19, 2005 the SLA attacked Government of Sudan forces in the South Darfur town of Shearia, resulting in an SLA takeover of the town. The Shearia attack prompted NGOs to evacuate the area. Excerpt from Radio Netherlands October 5, 2005:

Some are accusing the rebel SLA faction of deliberately provoking the Janjaweed into last week's attack in Darfur, arguing that they wanted to stop the other factions from making progress in the talks. Dr Reeves thinks this is a clear possibility:

"There is very little doubt that Minni Minnawi, the Secretary General of the SLA, launched a provocative attack on the town of Shearia ... Certainly, the SLA is culpable on many counts, all of which translates into a situation which is so violent and so insecure that humanitarian operations are all in the red zone: they are all on the point of withdrawal."

Photo: SLA rebels in Muzbat town North Darfur State, Sudan (c) Derk Segaar/IRIN

Bio: General Omar Hasan Ahmed al-Bashir, President of the Republic of Sudan - and the African Union?

Sudan's dictator Omar al-Bashir is poised to lead Africa 'while genocide in Darfur, western Sudan enters its fourth year destroying the livelihoods of over 2 million Darfuris, and killing more than 400,000 people'.



Photo: Omar al-Bashir, President of the Republic of Sudan

Darfur rebels have said they will walk out of AU-sponsored peace talks in Nigeria, which currently holds the rotating AU chair, if Khartoum takes the lead. Khartoum says Nigeria will still host any peace talks if it becomes chairman. (Reuters/ST)

Jan 20, 2006 Reuters report says Sudan claims it's won the unamimous backing of 12 east African nations for its president to head the African Union. Excerpt:

"Sudan's Information Minister al-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik said the chairmanship would be decided by African leaders on Monday, the first day of the summit in Khartoum.

But U.N. envoy for Sudan Jan Pronk said at a news conference in The Hague he thought it unlikely a new chairman would be appointed. "At the moment, the expectation is that President (Olusegun) Obasanjo of Nigeria will be asked to continue a bit longer, and that would be wise," he said."

Jan 20, 2006 Reuters report quotes a director of Human Rights Watch as saying:

"It would be highly inappropriate for the Sudanese government, which is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, to preside over the African Union. The A.U.'s credibility, and its ability to promote and protect human rights, would be irreparably damaged."

- - -



Photo: Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir holds aloft a bird symbolising peace at a rally on January 10, 2005. With a peace treaty in hand (that he did not personally sign) he began a triumphant tour of his country, greeted by thousands of revellers telling them "From now on, there will be no more fighting, but development and prosperity." (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)

Read about Omar al-Bashir

Thanks to Kaunda at Bazungu Bucks for linking to Sudan Watch and Third World Traveller's reprint of the following bio by New Internationalist:

[Courtesy New Internationalist magazine 339 - October 2001 - sources: UPI, 29 Nov 1998; The Observer, 16 April 2000; Amnesty International Annual Report 2001; Sudan: The Human Price of Oil, Amnesty International, 2000; Reuters, 10 Sept 1998; AP, 28 Sept 28 1999; BBC News Online, see www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa]

Even the most loathsome tyrants are occasionally admired for their charm, their guile or perhaps their intellect. The same cannot be said for Sudan's Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir who heads one of Africa's biggest and potentially richest nations. Part blowhard, part thug, al-Bashir is a graduate of the 'Idi Amin School of Dictators'.

When General al-Bashir seized power in a sudden military coup on 30 June 1989 there were nagging doubts about his ability to take charge of the mammoth war-torn nation. A youthful 42 at the time, he had been one of the key figures in the Sudanese military assault on black southerners.

Sudan is a country divided between mostly Muslim Arabs in the north and Christian or animist black Africans in the south. The southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) launched its drive for secular democracy and self-determination in 1983. Since then, the Government (even before al-Bashir became leader) has conducted an all-out war against southern dissidents. Amnesty International estimates ~ million people have died in the carnage while 4.5 million have become internal exiles and another 4.5 million have fled the country.

AI-Bashir was an eager, early player in this mayhem. He was born into a peasant family in the small village of Hosh Bannaga, 150 kilometres north of the capital Khartoum. As a young man he later joined the army and quickly vaulted to the top of the command structure. He studied at military college in Cairo where he also became a crack paratrooper, later serving with the Egyptian army in the 1973 war against Israel. Back in Sudan, al-Bashir led a series of successful assaults on the SPLA in the early 19805 and soon was appointed General - scant 20 years after leaving military college.

Al-Bashir toppled Sadeq al-Mahdi's democratically elected government in 1989 -'to save the country from rotten political parties' as he said later. With the backing of Hassan al-Turabi, the fundamentalist leader of the National Islamic Front (NIF), the General immediately took steps to 'islamicize' the state. Al-Bashir dissolved parliament, banned all political parties and shut down the press. He also stepped up scorched-earth campaign in the south while courting his fundamentalist supporters. All opponents were dismissed as 'agents imperialism and Zionism'.

Like his fellow Middle-Eastern demogogues, al Bashir loves nothing better than a good anti-Semitic rant. He . once claimed that 'Jews control all decision-making centres in the US. The Secretary of State, the Defence Secretary, the National Security Advisor and the CIA are all [controlled by] Jews'. In March 1991 al-Bashir reinstated strict Islamic . religious law (sharia), pleasing al-Turabi who was appointed speaker of the country's jerry-rigged parliament.

But not for long. Jealous of the influential cleric's growing power in the NIF, al-Bashir declared a state of emergency in December 1999 and ousted al-Turabi from the party.

He followed this with showcase elections a year later which he won easily. Not that difficult a feat given that all major opposition parties were in hiding and SPLA-controlled areas in the south didn't take part at all.

Meanwhile, both international outrage and the death toll in the civil war continues to mount. The General's regime has been buoyed by infusions of cash from the petroleum industry which has refused to bow to international pressure and continues to pump oil along a 2,200 kilometre pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Al-Bashir shrugs off UN sanctions and the loss of World Bank aid, secure in his new-found oil wealth. Sudan, he crows, has entered 'a new stage. We have learned to rely on ourselves.'

Not quite. There would be no oil money to grease the war machine without the co-operation of a consortium of foreign oil companies led, shamefully, by Canada's Talisman Energy. Arms imports have skyrocketed with the new oil money - as has Government bombing of southern civilians. President al Bashir has openly declared his intention of using petrodollars to win the war. One press report noted that 'troops backed by tanks, helicopter gunships and aerial bombardments are torturing, slaughtering and burning men, women and children in a drive to evict all non-Arabs from oil-producing areas.' To add to Sudan's misery, food shortages, rooted in war and exacerbated by drought, are widespread and a deadly, biblical-style famine now threatens millions.

But never mind. Omar al-Bashir seems unperturbed. While he was bombing his fellow Sudanese citizens in the south he decided to honour his own success. On the tenth anniversary of the coup that brought him to power he decorated himself with a national medal.

Photo: Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan where the President al-Bashir lives. Click on image.

Further reading:

Dec 30, 2005: Sudan buys presidential yacht for AU summit.

Jan 17, 2006: Khartoum rushes to transform itself AU summit to be held in Khartoum Jan 23-24, 2006.

Libya proposes to deploy AU soldiers on Chad-Sudan border

A news report in Sudan Tribune today says Libyan leader, Colonel Gadhafi proposes the deployment along the Sudan Chad borders of 3,000 soldiers from the current AU force in Darfur to close these borders in the face of the rebels from both sides and prevent infiltration and shifting of arms from one side into the other.

In a statement to Sudanese TV, Gadhafi said he had presented his initiative to the Chadian and Sudanese presidents.

"I am hoping that a summit between the concerned countries, which called for by the chairman of the African Union be convened before the African Union summit in Khartoum" he further added.

Regarding Darfur, the Libyan leader said "it is a Sudanese internal problem" which "has no connection with the problem outside Sudan".

African countries should help in the financing of these forces he said.

[If African countires can afford to finance 3,000 AU soldiers from Darfur, why have they not provided more troops for Darfur?]

Slovene's "The World for Darfur" initiative welcomed in France

News from Paris yesterday says Slovene President Janez Drnovsek suggests China should be won over for the Dafur cause:

"China maintains a strong economic presence in Sudan and could strengthen the African Union-led peacekeeping mission, which is understaffed and ill-equipped for the task, Drnovsek was quoted as saying."

Is he thinking of Chinese peacekeepers and/or funding? John Garang, when he was alive last year, rejected any suggestion of Chinese troops participating in the UN's peacekeeping mission for southern Sudan because the Chinese government is onside with Khartoum regime. China depends on 20% of its oil from Sudan and is involved in large scale projects like Sudan's Merowe Dam.

Further reading:

Jan 12, 2006: The El Multaga resettlement site - Sudan's Chinese backed Merowe Dam is for the greater benefit of Sudan

Jan 14, 2006: China and Qata block report to UN Security Council re illegal arms flow to Darfur Sudan

Jan 15, 2006: Chinese security forces in Sudan driving Sudanese people from their homes in upper western Nile oil fields, S Sudan

Glenys Kinnock MEP: The rape of Darfur

Now that 90% of the black African villages in Darfur have been destroyed, sexual violence against women and children is being used to break the will of the population, writes Glenys Kinnock in the Guardian Jan 18.

Mrs Kinnock suggests some steps we can take to protect the women of Darfur:

We could send groups of policewomen from African nations to accompany the firewood-gathering trips.

Civilian police would not represent the same challenge to the national sovereignty of Sudan that soldiers would.

By training, supporting and enabling female police officers from African countries we could build the capacity of their forces, thus achieving two worthwhile aims at once.

We could help provide fuel-efficient stoves so less firewood is needed.

We could vastly increase the currently tiny number of African Union monitors in Darfur, giving them enough personnel to deter the militia from attacking women.

We could provide rape counselling and a chance to break the taboo of silence.

We could increase medical treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, as recommended by Medecins Sans Frontiers.

Firewood patrols for IDPs at Kalma Camp, Darfur Sudan

Norwegian Refugee Council reports on firewood patrols for IDPs.

Why divestment from Sudan is wrong

Opinion piece by Ismail Abdel-Rasoul, California Aggie, 19 January 2006.

Darfur JEM/SLM open letter to UN Security Council

Sudan Tribune publishes copy of an open letter to UN Security Council from two main rebel groups in Darfur, Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Sudanese Justice & Equality Movement (JEM), Abuja, Nigeria January 12, 2006.

Note, on Monday SLM rejected Khartoum's offer to deploy joint forces alongside African Union troops to curb the violence in Darfur - and insisted on the deployment of an international force. See Sudan Watch January 15, 2006 Sudan proposes formation of joint army force of GOS/Rebel/AU troops for Darfur and offers to partly finance AU troops in Darfur.

Sudan's Darfur rebels take their battles online - emailing and using blogs to compete with rivals

Rebel leaders in Sudan are using blogs to communicate with each other as part of an ongoing fued as to who actually controls the main rebel group in the country, writes The Blog Herald in response to an article by Emily Wax, Washington Post, Jan 14 - excerpt:

The leaders of the main rebel movement in Sudan's Darfur region were once brothers in arms. But last year, the two powerful men had a falling out, and each proclaimed he was the rightful president of the Sudanese Liberation Army. Things got ugly.

But not a single shot was fired. Instead, the feuding insurgents battled as bloggers over the Internet.

"I got his e-mails and read those bitter diaries," said Mohamed al-Nur, a founder of the rebel group, at a conference held here late last year by the United States to try to bring the two sides together.

"That's the only place we hear from you - on that Internet!" hooted Saif Haroun, a spokesman for Minni Arko Minnawi, the newly proclaimed leader. "You run your rebellion from a computer?"

Rice says Sudan should have no veto power over configuration of peacekeeping operations

Excerpts from Jan 16 AFP report reprinted by Khaleej Times:

[US Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice reiterated Washington's backing for a UN proposal to take over peacekeeping chores in Darfur from a cash-strapped African Union force and said perhaps NATO could expand on its current logistical help.

"I think that the Africans have always wanted this to be an African mission," she said. "Hopefully there are enough African forces that can contribute but I think we'll just need to talk to our allies and see what might be needed."

The chief US diplomat said the 7,000-strong AU force was doing a good job in trying to curb bloodshed in Sudan's western region but faces continuing violence and mounting tensions on the border with Chad.

"It is probably pretty close to the limits of what it can do in its current size and configuration and there are issues of how to sustain it," Rice said. "That's why we favor a UN mission which has a quality of sustainability."

But Rice made it clear that the Sudan authorities, whom Washington has accused of genocide in Darfur, should have no veto power over the configuration of peacekeeping operations.

Rice said a call would likely go out "pretty soon" for countries willing to contribute more to Darfur peacekeeping efforts and said discussions would be held on deepening NATO's role, perhaps in planning.

She said a UN mission would have more money as well as forces at its disposal but did not say what the United States was ready to commit in terms of financial support.



Photo: Dr Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State (Reuters/ST)

Rice chides Khartoum and backs major U.N. role in Darfur

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a visit to Liberia for the inauguration of Africa's first woman president said on Monday she favoured a major U.N. role in Darfur and told Khartoum it must cooperate in accepting international help. Excerpts from Jan 16 Reuters report:

[Rice] said the African Union mission in Darfur was "not falling apart" but it needed help from the United Nations and possibly more NATO assistance.

"I think it's doing a good job but it is pretty close to the limits of what it can do in its size and configuration. There are issues in how to sustain it," said Rice of the estimated 7,000 African Union (AU) troops struggling to keep the peace in Sudan's vast western region.

"We favour a U.N. mission which has the qualities of sustainability that comes from the whole U.N. peacekeeping system," she added.

"I think the Khartoum government should be cooperative," said Rice. "They have a problem in Darfur. The international community expects them to contribute to solving it and also expects them to allow the international community to contribute to solving it," she added.

Rice said NATO could also possibly do more in Darfur. Asked whether the United States was willing to provide troops, a move Khartoum opposes, Rice did not answer the question but pointed out that the United States was a member of NATO.

Rice stressed the AU wanted this to be an African mission in Darfur and hopefully there would be enough African troops to do the job.

"There will undoubtedly also need to be more forces available for the AU mission. We will pretty soon here be in the business of seeing who might be willing to contribute more towards the AU mission," said Rice.

Rice said she was troubled by the deteriorating security situation between Chad and Sudan over rebel and militia raids in Darfur and this heightened the need for U.N. involvement.

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.

- - -

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.
- - -

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."
- - -

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
- - -

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.
- - -

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.

- - -

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.
- - -

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)
- - -

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."
- - -

Blair to replace Kofi Annan at UN?

Good news. BBC report January 14, 2006 says Clinton backs Blair as UN chief.
- - -

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."
- - -

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.
- - -

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.
- - -

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.

- - -

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.
- - -

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.
- - -

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."

- - -

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]
- - -

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.