Pope set for live link-up at Murrayfield in Scotland, UK

The Scotsman's chief news correspondent Gethin Chamberlain reports today that Sir Bob Geldof has another great idea. He has invited the Pope to Scotland to conduct a mass at Murrayfield stadium to coincide with the Make Poverty History march in the run-up to the G8 summit.

According to the report, talks with the stadium are believed to have already taken place with a view to staging the event on 2 July. The Vatican is understood to have told Mr Geldof that the Pope will be unable to attend in person, but that he could appear in a live link-up from Rome on a giant video screen set up in the stadium. There are also suggestions that Nelson Mandela could appear via a similar live link. Full Story



Photo: Sir Bob Geldof is eager for Pope Benedict, pictured, to conduct a mass at Murrayfield stadium to coincide with the Make Poverty History march at the start of July. Picture: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

It would be great to see Archbishop Desmond Tutu participating too.

Tags: Africa Pope+Benedict Mandela Blair Geldof Make+Poverty+History G8

Blair wins support for G8 plans - EU plan to double aid is greeted with caution

May 27 BBC report Blair wins support for G8 plans:

Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi have agreed on plans to increase aid to Africa and tackle climate change, they said after holding talks in Rome.

EU development ministers this week agreed to double aid to poorer nations. Under the deal, the EU's aid will be worth an extra 14 billion GPB annually in five years' time.

The BBC report reveals a document purporting to be a draft communique for the G8's climate change talks has now been published on the Carroll.org.uk weblog. Downing Street refused to say whether or not the leak was genuine.
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EU plan to double aid is greeted with caution

Yesterday's Financial Times reports the European Union's claim this week that it would double development aid by 2010 was greeted with joy by governments and some development charities, who regarded it as a significant breakthrough. Excerpt:

But the history of such announcements, combined with the caveats that surround them, counsels caution. Among other campaigners and some aid experts, scepticism about such announcements extends to the quality of existing aid.

One charity argues in a report today for instance that almost two-thirds of rich country aid is "phantom" aid that does not benefit its recipients.

Full Story at FT.com by Alan Beattie May 27, 2005. [with thanks to ij]
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Quotation of the Year

"What's happening in Africa today is something that, if it happened in any other continent in the world, there would be outrage " - Tony Blair

Tags: Africa sustainable+development environment Blair European+Union G8

Donors pledge nearly $300m for Darfur force - WFP says more than 6m people need food aid across Sudan

Photo: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, centre, is received at Khartoum airport by State Minister of Foreign Affairs Nageeb Khair, right, and the special representative of the Secretary General of the UN in Sudan Jan Pronk in Khartoum, Sudan Friday, May 27, 2005.

Annan arrived in Sudan on Friday to assess developments and see for himself the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, a day after urging rich nations to pledge more money to help end bloodshed there.

He met with top Sudanese officials in Khartoum on Friday to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis and security conditions in Darfur, and will meet with John Garang in South Sudan. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)
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Donors pledge nearly $300 mln for Darfur force

So far, donors have pledged nearly $300 million for Darfur force. A formal announcement on the total pledges is expected later on May 27, Mr Annan said after a one-day pledging conference finished in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Thursday.

At the conference, the African Union requested $466 million cash in order to more than triple its existing force of 2,270 in Darfur.

Maybe Mr Annan's report will explain the reasons for the shortfall and clarify if the EU will be making a financial contribution. There is talk that some of the shortfall could be made up by the involvement of NATO.
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UN WFP estimates that more than six million people require food aid across Sudan

In a report from Nairobi May 27, 2005, IRIN says the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) now estimates more than six million people require food aid across Sudan.

Also, the report says food supplies for millions of families across Sudan are running critically low, and many will face severe shortages unless more funds for food and agricultural assistance are forthcoming, aid agencies warned.



Photo (Reuters/Antony Njuguna), Note the caption by Reuters states:

Sudanese children eat leaves torn off trees and boiled by their mothers to ward off starvation in the southern village of Paliang May 26, 2005. Mothers in southern Sudan are feeding their children leaves to stop them starving to death after rich countries failed to heed months of appeals to prevent the region's worst food crisis in seven years.

Er ... hello? Rich countries have NOT failed to heed months of appeals. It is not true. Last month, on top of all the other contributions during the preceding year, they pledged 4.5 billion dollars to South Sudan and the general public have donated generously to the internal aid agencies. Reuters is feeding garbage to its readers. Where are they getting their information from - who is creating this propaganda - and why? Is it just sloppy reporting or what?
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Sudan: Aid agencies sound alarm over precarious food situation

Last month, international donors at a conference in Oslo pledged 4.5 billion dollars in development aid for southern Sudan following the signing of the north-south peace agreement January 9. In fact pledges exceeded funding needs to rebuild Sudan.

"This conference has pledged 4.5 billion dollars (3.5 billion euros) for 2005, 2006 and 2007," Norway's Minister for Development Aid Hilde Frafjord Johnson told the donors gathered in Oslo.

So, what is going on? Here is an excerpt from the above report:

Jean-Jacques Graisse, WFP senior deputy executive director, who recently visited Khartoum, southern Sudan and Darfur said pockets of severe malnutrition had already been identified, as well as areas where households had exhausted their food stocks.

A survey conducted in Twic and Abyei villages in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state by ACR and GOAL found malnutrition rates were double the emergency threshold.

The consensus among NGOs is that funding shortfalls must be addressed immediately to avoid serious suffering of those who already experienced famine in 1998 in the southwestern region of Bahr el Ghazal, where tens of thousands of people died.

Of the US $302 million budget required for WFP operations across southern Sudan in 2005, only $78 million has been received. This represents a shortfall of $224 million - or 74 percent of requested funding.

"I am worried some areas may suffer a disaster if we don't have the resources to save lives," said Graisse in a statement on Tuesday.

Note, the report also states that for 2005, FAO had appealed for nearly $62 million in emergency assistance to support Sudan's agriculture sector. So far, Bellemans said, $10.5 million - just 17 percent - had been funded.

Does anybody know what is really going on out there? Why are pictures, such as those posted here below, coming through in the latest news reports on southern Sudan? Recently, the BBC reported that militias had blocked aid to Southern Sudan [see full story by Jonah Fisher, BBC News, New Faniak, southern Sudan May 18, 2005] but it does not explain why hard cash is not being channelled to those who are requesting funding. Are the donors pledging and not paying up? If so, why is the UN not shouting in the press like they usually do when they need money. Why are they not naming and shaming the countries not paying up?



Photo taken on May 25, 2005 via Reuters/Antony Njuguna. The following caption is, I guess, composed by Reuters:

"A starving Sudanese boy waits for food at a feeding centre run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the village of Paliang, about 160 km (99 miles) northwest of the southern town of Rumbek, May 25, 2005.

Faced with competing calls to finance help for a separate conflict in Darfur, donors are failing to send the food needed to avert south Sudan's worst crisis since a 1998 famine in which at least 60,000 people died."

Who is blaming donors? Who knows, it could be that Reuters are not making this up. Maybe they are getting information from somewhere that states "donors are failing to send the food needed". Are they talking about the UN's World Food Programme or USAID not delivering the goods?



Photo and caption (again by Reuters/Antony Njuguna): A starving Sudanese family wait in line at a feeding center run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the village of Paliang, about 160 km (99 miles) northwest of the southern town of Rumbek, May 25, 2005. Faced with competing calls to finance help for a separate conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, donors are failing to send the food needed to avert south Sudan's worst crisis since a 1998 famine in which at least 60,000 people died. Picture taken on May 25, 2005.
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Here is an excerpt from a first hand account of the humanitarian crisis in southern Sudan, linked to here below yesterday:

According to an international development consultant working in the area, Njunga M. Mulikita, the general public complaint is that they are not experiencing the peace dividend in tangible terms.

"When UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan tours Southern Sudan this weekend, he is likely to be greeted by crowds of people crying out for water wells, schools for their children and health facilities," Mulikita told PANA.

There is practically no infrastructure in southern Sudan. Everything was destroyed during the two decades of war between the Khartoum government and the SPLM/A.

Aid workers in the region were of the opinion that Annan's visit to Rumbek, the provisional capital of the SPLM/A should galvanise the international community to support the peace deal through a massive recovery and reconstruction programme.

"In my travels throughout Southern Sudan, the people I spoke with said they were simply tired of assessments carried out by UN agencies and NGOs.

"In one settlement, Koch, in the Upper Nile region, which I visited last month, the scarcity of water was so acute that over half of the women were suffering from severe diarrhoea.

"In another settlement, Kapoeta, which is not very far from the northern Kenyan town of Lokichokkio, recovery is hampered by anti-personnel and anti-tank mines because some of the heaviest fighting took place there," Mulikita explained.

Against this background, the incoming Government of Southern Sudan, to be formed by the SPLM/A faces huge challenges in addressing humanitarian, recovery and developmental needs of a war-weary population.

Presently, there is a massive influx of displaced persons who are going back to Southern Sudan.

However, officials in run-down municipalities such as Kapoeta, Koch, and Mayom wonder how the returnees would be accommodated given the devastated infrastructure.

"In Koch we were asked when we would arrange for a new well to be sunk to alleviate the suffering of women who must wake up as early as 03:00 hours to collect water.

"Water shortage in Koch is so acute that fights periodically break out at the settlement's sole water point," said Mulikita.

On this account, it is the hope of many people in Southern Sudan that Annan's forthcoming visit will draw international attention to the extreme humanitarian and developmental situation in the area.

Southern Sudanese want to see the pledges made at the Oslo donor conference being translated into improved water availability and living standards for women and children in all war-shattered settlements.
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Garang urges "real transformation" to succeed peace

Having glanced through John Garang's latest interview, I cannot see anything about emergency food and water for the people of South Sudan. Maybe on second reading later on, I will find something.
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US support for repatriation and reintegration of Sudanese refugees

On May 17 ReliefWeb said the US is contributing an additional $18 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to support the repatriation and reintegration of Sudanese refugees from Kenya to southern Sudan.

The report said this assistance is part of the US commitment to Sudan announced by Deputy Secretary Robert Zoellick at the April 2005 Oslo Donors's Conference. Full Story via ReliefWeb May 17, 2005.

[You have to wonder when exactly aid that is pledged actually reaches those most in need. Does anybody check? There are seldom progress reports of who is doing what, how and when. There are 10,000 aid workers in Darfur alone (about 9,000 are Sudanese). Massive operations when you think of what is happening over the border in Chad where 200,000 refugees sit imprisoned in camps, waiting to go home.

Humanitarian aid is a multi billion dollar business. 4.5 billion dollars have been pledged for southern Sudan. And news is still coming through of people suffering hunger and thirst. The UN and its WFP are good at telling us when they need cash. They say they can perform miracles if they get enough money. The 4.5 million dollars pledged last month was far greater than the UN called for. The UN always has the excuse it doesn't have enough money. And yet this time it received more pledges than it bargained for. What now?]
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Amnesty singled out Sudan's Government as one of the world's worst

This week, Amnesty International singled out the government of Sudan as one of the world's worst human rights abusers, accusing it of turning its back as government forces and allied militias attacked people in the Darfur region.

One man with a unique perspective on the alleged human rights abuses in Sudan is Hartford Courant newspaper photographer Bradley Clift. He travelled to refugee camps in Darfur where he was detained by Sudanese government forces for 16 days. Full Story. Excerpt:



Photo: Bradley E. Clift) May 2005 -- While the ethnic cleansing he came to photograph continues outside the western town he was arrested in, Bradley Clift, photojournalist for the Hartford Courant, looks through bars at his compound in Nyala on day 14 of his detainment. Arrested for taking pictures in off-limits IDP camps (Internally Displaced Persons) Clift faced an array of serious charges that kept him in jail, prison and finally under house arrest for 15 days before his release was negotiated politically through the embassy.

"With what the police were saying to me, I never thought I'd see the light of day again," Clift said. "Missing my wife and son Spencer were the hardest parts, but the fear of a long prison sentence is what really rattled me. Every day I wondered what I was missing out that window, stuck, under house arrest in Nyala. And each day, the Aid workers would come back and tell me. It was all so painful." "All so torturous on so many levels," Clift said.
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Feeling underwhelmed

One of my favourite British bloggers Clive Soley has just retired as a Labour MP and has been elevated to the House of Lords. Over the past year, I've left quite a few comments at Clive's blog about Sudan. Today Clive writes this line in his latest post:

"Ingrid will be pleased to see the latest moves on Sudan. There does seem to be a serious attempt to help the African nations develop an interventionist/peacekeeping force. NATO logistical support will be particularly important."

Here is a copy of a comment I posted in reply [Note: after posting the comment, a news report quotes WFP as saying six million people across Sudan now need feeding, It looks like the UN have changed their figures to include 2-3 million people in southern Sudan and probably those around Khartoum where the BBC says there are two million displaced people living in shanty towns]

Hello Clive, Yes it is pleasing to see Nato's chief attending talks on Darfur in western Sudan. But it is difficult to understand why at the same talks, when the African Union requested $466 million cash to triple the number of its troops in Darfur, international donors - so far - have only offered $300 million. It seems the balance may be made up by the EU or in contributions by Nato. It's a bit underwhelming. Pledges don't always materialise into hard cash. The longer this goes on, the more costly it will be to feed what amounts now to three million people in Darfur alone, bringing the figure to four million displaced who are totally dependent on aid for years to come simply because they can't return home and plant their food because of lack of security.

In April there was a donors conference in Oslo where 4.5 billion dollars was pledged for southern Sudan for development aid following the signing of the north-south peace deal Jan 9. Most of it is dependent on peace in Darfur but news reports are now coming through of people in desperate need of food and water in southern Sudan because aid/funding is not materliasing. News reports don't explain how much cash is actually allocated for aid or why these people are still suffering so badly for lack of water pumps and basic food. Mothers are feeding boiled leaves to their babies. It seems cancellation of debts are counted as aid money.

Sorry to sound so negative. On the surface, recent press reports sound good but when you dig deeper and see it from the refugees point of view, it doesn't look good at all. The rains are coming again soon. Rebels could start violence at any time in Eastern Sudan, people in the Nuba mountains southern Sudan are getting disenchanted waiting so long to feel the benefit of the peace deal. There's anarchy almost everywhere. Not a single Janjaweed has been arrested. One of the leaders Musa Hilal is freely walking around Darfur preaching peace. The African Union has 2,270 soldiers on the ground - and Darfur has waited eight months now for the extra 1,000 troops to arrive. Yes violence may have appeared to have lessened because there's hardly anyone left to hassle and kill! They've all been driven away for the West to take care of. As soon as they try to return home the Janjaweed turn up and attack again.

I'd like to see some women in charge in Khartoum. I'm serious. I read of an experiment once where they studied an all boy school class versus a 50-50 boy/girl class. The all boy class turned out to be a pretty unruly rum lot. In the other class, girls challenged the boys bullying and violent behaviour and the boys changed their ways because they found out if they didn't, they wouldn't be accepted by the group or get a mate. :-)
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Quotation of the Day

"If violence and fear prevent the people of Darfur from planting and growing crops next year, then millions will have to be sustained by an epic relief effort which will stretch international capacity to the maximum" - Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General

Please read full report by Gethin Chamberlain, Chief News Correspondent for the Scotsman. Last year, Mr Chamberlain was one of the first reporters in the field reporting from the Chad-Sudan border Africa: Running a race against time

[with thanks to ij at G8 and The Middle East]

Sudan says donor conference successful - Nations pledge $200 million more for Darfur - peace talks start 10 June

Minister of State of the Sudanese Interior Ministry Ahmed Haroun said on Thursday that a donors' conference held earlier in the day in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa was a success.

Haroun, who accompanied First Vice President Ali Othman Mohammed Taha to the conference, told reporters that the conference succeeded in offering financial and logistical support required to strengthen the African Union's Mission (AMIS) in Darfur.

Earlier in the day, the 53-member pan-African body appealed for 460 million dollars in cash, military equipment and logistical support to reinforce its current troops to more than 7,700 by September.

In his address to the conference, Taha voiced the government's willingness to cooperate with and support the AU's mission in Darfur.

He reaffirmed that the Darfur issue is an African conflict and should be resolved within the AU framework.

[Sounds good but bear in mind, things are not always what they seem. Khartoum have proven themselves to have two faces and speak with forked tongues. They recently agreed to Ugandan forces hunting down LRA rebels in southern Sudan. Some news sources - including Khartoum's Monitor which was closed down for one day this week by Sudanese police - say Khartoum supports and arms the Ugandan rebel group LRA]
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Darfur peace talks to resume June 10

The AU has announced that a new round of peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels will be held on June 10 in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Darfur rebel group JEM confirms it will participate.

[At least we will find out soon enough just how genuine both sides are. But anything could happen between now and then. Eastern Front and others in Eastern Sudan are making themselves heard again. Eritrea and Ethiopia will start beating their war drums ... LRA attacks will happen in southern Sudan ... all the usual trouble that flares whenever Darfur peace talks loom. The rebels are just as bad as Khartoum. I have no sympathy for either side. Both are to blame for displacing 4 million people, causing millions of deaths and inflicting horrendous misery and suffering upon defenceless women and children]
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Nations pledge $200M more for Darfur

Associated Press confirms May 27 that international donors pledged an additional $200 million Thursday to fund the African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur during the above mentioned conference.

AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said officials were still analysing the pledges but that it appeared enough money was raised to bolster the force currently in Darfur. "There is a clear will. Many states and countries are willing to bridge the gap," Konare told reporters.

Canada made the largest new pledge, promising $134 million. The State Department's senior representative on Sudan, Charles Snyder, said Washington was adding an additional $50 million to the $95 million already pledged to end what he called "acts of genocide" in the ongoing conflict.



Photo: A young Sudanese child is helped with a drink of clean water at the Abu Shouk refugee camp near El Fasher, in Darfur, Sudan, in August 2004.(AFP/File/Jim Watson)

Peace will only be made, and kept, by the Sudanese people themselves

May 26 UN news centre -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairperson of the AU Commission, writes in an opinion piece published in the Washington Times May 26, 2005. Excerpt explains what should happen in principle, but things don't always work out that way in practice:

"The international response is thus falling short in two lethal ways: another $350 million in aid is needed to help more than three million people survive the rest of this year, and more troops, police, aircraft and other transport, training and logistical support are needed to enable the AU to protect the population in much of Darfur.

As part of our efforts to address the crisis in Darfur, we jointly convened yesterday a donor conference in Addis Ababa, to give the rest of the world (especially the wealthy countries that have the means to contribute, and whose media and public opinion have been most vocal about the need to halt atrocities in Darfur) an opportunity to rally round and give practical support to the Africans, who are actually doing something on the ground. This conference complements the one held in Oslo last month, at which $4.5 billion in aid was pledged to Sudan, mainly to support the fragile peace that has at last been achieved between North and South after a 21-year civil war.

Indeed, Darfur can only benefit if the rest of the Sudan is at peace, and if the new government of national unity (due to take office in July) leads the whole country in a new, more inclusive direction. Thus the 10,000-strong peacekeeping force that the United Nations is now deploying in the South will help make peace viable throughout the country, including Darfur.

But action is urgently needed in Darfur itself, on three fronts: the humanitarian effort must be fully funded, and safe access for relief workers - both inter- and non-governmental - must be fully guaranteed by all parties.

The AU force must be expanded without delay, and bolstered by logistical and financial support, so that it can provide real security throughout Darfur, allowing the people to return to their homes and resume cultivating their crops. African states that have promised troops must provide them promptly, and donors must provide the means needed for those troops to deploy. Both the government and the rebels must bring their forces and allied militias under full control, and ensure that they fully respect the cease-fire and humanitarian law.

And the parties to the conflict must negotiate a political agreement offering solid guarantees for lasting peace. The AU and the wider international community can and must help. But in the end peace will only be made, and kept, by the Sudanese people themselves."
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Southern Sudan cries out for humanitarian aid

Recently, at the last donors' conference in Oslo, the international community pledged 4.5 billion dollars in development funding for southern Sudan following the Jan 9 signing of a peace deal. Although most of it is conditional upon peace in Darfur, it is difficult to believe that none of it has been forthcoming for humanitarian aid. If the below report is true, then you have to wonder why has South Sudan's new leader John Garang has not screamed to the press on behalf of his people. News out of Sudan is as dubious as its politics.



Photo: A four-year-old Sudanese boy collapses from hunger at a feeding centre run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the village of Paliang, about 160 km northwest of the southern town of Rumbek, May 25, 2005. (Reuters).

See May 26, 2005 report by Anaclet Rwegayura via SudanTribune - Southern Sudan cries out for humanitarian aid.

Committee to Protect Bloggers: Media fast for Mojtaba today

As reported here May 19, today is Media fast for Mojtaba day.



Photo of Mojtaba via CPB: 'Apparently, Mojtaba has yielded to his mother's imprecation not to hurt himself and so cancel his fast'

[via Curt with thanks] Tags: Tehran Iran Mojtaba Blog Bloggers Committee+to+Protect+Bloggers

NATO chief off to Darfur meeting, urges Sudan not to hinder AU mission

ARE, Sweden, May 25, 2005 (AP/ST) -- NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer flew to an international conference in Ethiopia Wednesday with an offer of logistical support for the African Union's bid to widen its peacekeeping mission in the Sudanese region of Darfur.


Photo: NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (Sudan Tribune)

Making an early exit from a Euro-Asian security meeting in Sweden, he said it was important for the mission's success that Sudan does not hinder the African Union.

"What is important," he told reporters, "is that the government of Sudan will give the green light to the African Union" to more than double its current peacekeeping operation to about 7,000 troops.

He said NATO will offer airplanes to transport African peacekeeping troops, but military planners were still working out the details.

"We will do that in close consultation and harmony with the United Nations and, more specifically, the European Union," he said.

On Thursday, De Hoop Scheffer will attend an international conference in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to discuss the Darfur crisis further with EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and AU officials.

On Tuesday, the NATO allies said they stood ready to provide non-combat aid for the AU's beleaguered peacekeeping force in Darfur, approving "initial military options" for logistical NATO support. The EU has similarly agreed to offer assistance in the form of military transport, training and planning.

Last week, AU Commission President Alpha Oumar Konare asked both the EU and NATO for help.

De Hoop Scheffer stressed the AU -- not NATO -- would be running the Darfur operation.

The EU has already sent military advisers to help the AU mission and is spending US $116 million to cover almost half the costs of the operation.



United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan (L) talks to African Union (AU) Commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konar (R) as he arrived at Addis Ababa airport in Ethiopia May 25, 2005 as both will co-chair the AU meeting on Thursday. The AU is seeking $460 million to more than triple its peacekeeping force in Darfur, a senior AU official said on Wednesday. (Reuters/Andrew Heavens)



Photo: A displaced Sudanese girl sits inside a temporary shelter at Sreef camp near Nyala in south Darfur, October 8, 2004. (AFP).



Photo: Sudanese women arrive with empty containers to collect water at Abu Shouk camp, home of some 100,000 refugees in Darfur May 25, 2005. (Reuters/Beatrice Mategwa)

Today, Human Rights Watch called for officials from the UN, EU, US and AU participating in tomorrow's donor meeting in Addis Ababa to denounce Sudanese government efforts to backtrack on cooperation with relief agencies.

HRW said Khartoum is refusing to grant visas and travel permits to increasing numbers of international journalists and the government's initimidation and stepped-up denial of access for media to Darfur are part of a recurring effort to reduce international criticism of abuses committed by the Sudanese government and its militia allies in Darfur.
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UN agencies help Sudan turn back polio epidemic

Continuing the all-out effort to eradicate polio from Sudan, the country's Ministry of Health, backed by United Nations agencies and other organisations, today launched a three-day campaign to immunize all children under 5.

Full Report via UN May 25, 2005.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union European+Union NATO

African Union's wish list for Sudan does not include troops

A report today by News 24 in Addis Ababa South Africa makes the African Union sound like it could be doing more in Darfur if only it was not so cash strapped and Western donors gave more. It is not true. The European Union alone has contributed a few hundred million dollars for starters. Not to mention huge pledges from the United States and other donors.

Journalists ought not to spread such rubbish news. The only reason there is not enough help to date in Darfur is purely down to the genocidal regime in Khartoum protecting its power base and sovereignty. End of story. If you want to know more about this, just keep scrolling on down here to August 2004 and keep on scrolling at Passion of the Present to April 2004. In short, everybody who wants to be on the ground in Darfur, is already there. In other words, nobody else wants to go. To date, it is Khartoum and African politics stopping African countries from contributing troops to the African Union mission in Darfur.
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South Africa sends 46 peacekeepers to Darfur

For what seems like eight months now, Darfur has waited for the long promised extra 1,000 African Union troops. A report today by Prensa Latina Johannesburg says South Africa has deployed 46 members of the SA Police Service (SAPS) to Darfur, as part of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS). Excerpt:

The members, six of whom are women, will join the 12 operational members and six members of the Headquarter Element who were deployed there earlier this year as part of the AMIS, the BUA News information service reports Wednesday.

The group - together with police members from other African countries - fall under the command of Director Anand Pillay, a South African who was appointed as the Commissioner of the AMIS Civilian Policing Component in Darfur.

All members of the SAPS deployed in Sudan had volunteered their duties and consequently passed stringent medical tests, evaluated and counselled, Police spokesperson Sally de Beer was quoted as saying by BUA News.

"They will undergo mission-specific training in Darfur," she added.

Director Pillay will deploy the members in terms of a needs analysis and in consultation with the African Union.

The role of the Civilian Policing members in Darfur would be to monitor the service delivery of the police of the government of Sudan to the community.

They will also facilitate the building of good relations between the community and the police, give technical advice, export their knowledge on the successful adoption and implementation of community policing.



Photo: Internally displaced Sudanese line up to fill their water containers at the Abu Shouk camp, home of some 100,000 refugees in Darfur May 25, 2005. The African Union (AU) celebrates Africa Day on Wednesday, marking the anniversary of the founding in 1963 of the Organisation of African Unity, replaced in 2002 by the AU as the driving force behind the struggle for peace, democracy, development, human rights and good governance on the worlds poorest continent. REUTERS/Beatrice Mategwa

Tags: Darfur Sudan African+Union Africa

Sudan: Women take brunt of human rights abuse: Amnesty

In no way am I a feminist but I do feel strongly that women should be in charge of African countries for a change. To nurture peace and help heal. Africa needs mothering. By great innovative women such as:

Wangari Maathai in Kenya
Gertrude Mongella in Tanzania
Winnie Byanyima in Uganda

Last year, Bishop Desmond Tutu said women should rule the world. Media baron Ted Turner said men have made such a mess of things, women should rule for 100 years. How many women have been in power in the Sudan since the year dot? None I guess. Radical change is needed. Too many boys playing with their toys have had things their own way for far too long.

What good do they do? See AFPs report on the latest from London-based Amnesty International. Here is a copy:

Women and girls faced "horrific" levels of abuse in 2004 worldwide, Amnesty International said in its annual human rights review, blaming widespread rape and violence on a mix of "indifference, apathy and impunity".

From honour killings carried out by the victims' families to sexual violence used as a weapon of war, abuse frequently went unpunished and survivors were often abandoned by their own communities, the London-based group said.

Amnesty said it had sought in the past year to argue that violence against women in conflict situations was "an extreme manifestation of the discrimination and abuse they face in peacetime", notably domestic violence and sexual abuse.

"When political tensions degenerate into outright conflict, all forms of violence increase, including rape and other forms of sexual violence against women."

The annual report, covering 131 countries, noted abuse across the world but highlighted several grave examples: in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), both armed groups and UN forces are guilty of rape; in Turkey, family abuse of women is widespread; in Darfur, Sudan, gang rape is systemic; and in eastern Europe, economic need fuels the trafficking of women.

In Darfur, where a local rebellion sparked a brutal government backlash, Khartoum-backed militias have staged mass rapes, including of schoolgirls, and "frequently abducted" local women into sexual slavery, Amnesty said.

Tens of thousands of women and girls were also subject to rape and sexual slavery in the DRC, and as in Darfur, victims were often then abandoned by their husbands and families, "condemning them and their children to extreme poverty".

All parties in the ongoing conflicts in the eastern DRC have committed the abuses against women, including military and police officers, and United Nations peacekeepers charged with the protection of civilians.

The two African cases were "not exceptional", Amnesty warned.

Latin America had the highest risk of all types of sexual victimisation, according to UN report findings cited by Amnesty.

In Colombia, the group said, security forces, left-wing rebels and paramilitaries targeted women and girls to "sow terror, wreak revenge on adversaries and accumulate 'trophies of war'."

In Turkey, between one-third and one-half of all women are estimated to be victims of physical violence by their families - raped, beaten, murdered or forced to commit suicide - while the country sorely lacked shelters and legal protection for victims.

Amnesty noted some progress in Ankara, with legal reforms that recognised marital rape as a crime and did away with the possibility that a rapist's prison sentence could be reduced or annulled if he agreed to marry his victim. Still, authorities largely failed to investigate most women's complaints of abuse.

Serbia and Montenegro "remained a source, transit and destination country" for women and girls who were trafficked to the West into forced prostitution, while the problem existed throughout the poorer countries of Eastern Europe.

"With clients including international police and troops, the women and girls are too afraid to escape," Amnesty said. -AFP
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Quotation

"When our resources become scarce, we fight over them. In managing our resources and in sustainable development, we plant the seeds of peace."

WANGARI MAATHAI, of Kenya, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

Tags: Sudan Wangari+Maathai Winnie+ Byanyima Gertrude+Mongella Africa

BBC's Jonah Fisher beaten by Sudanese security forces outside Khartoum, Sudan

Sudanese security forces are savage morons. If this is what they do to reporters with credentials, imagine what befell the poor people who were carted off by police for questioning after a riot in which 14 policemen were killed.

BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher in Khartoum describes in a report yesterday what happened to him, a photographer and their taxi driver upon arrival at the displaced persons settlement of Soba Aradi on the outskirts of Khartoum at 0730. Here is a copy of his sickening report:

The security cordon had been up for a few hours. Every 10 metres, there was a riot policeman or soldier, backed up along the line by machine-guns mounted on the back of pick-up trucks. No-one was allowed in or out.

The men were tense, each no doubt aware of what had happened six days earlier when 14 policemen were killed along with a number of residents, including a child.

Having been warned away from the cordon by security, I retreated to my taxi with a news agency photographer, watching what was going on from a distance.

We saw soldiers going from house to house, and people put in trucks and driven away.

Beaten

After about an hour, my colleague ventured out of the taxi to try and take some photos.

When they saw this, security forces raced towards us and our taxi.



BBC Photo: Last week, 14 policemen were killed here in riots

Despite immediately showing our press credentials, the photographer, myself, and the taxi driver were grabbed and thrown into the back of a truck.

We were made to squat on the floor, and were hit repeatedly on the back of our heads as we were driven away.

On the drive through Soba Aradi to the security headquarters, we saw the scale of the operation.

More than 6,000 soldiers and police officers had been deployed in an overwhelming show of force.

Release

Once at the headquarters, we were forced on our knees in front of their commander, a man named Badawi.

He snarled at us, but his hostile attitude soon disappeared when we were allowed to telephone senior people in the government press office to prove our identities.

A small graze on my hand was gently swabbed and bandaged in the back of a van as they made arrangements for us to be released.

Badawi stood there chatting to me, assuring me that what we'd just experienced was "standard procedure, so no problem".

I told him we'd been hit.

"Point me out the man and I will punch him in the face myself," he assured me. I said I couldn't remember.

Less than an hour after our arrest, we were released outside Soba Aradi police station.

The next truckload of arrested people was just arriving.

Men both old and young, as well as two women, were taken off.

There was no sign of resistance, but the enthusiastic use of the cane which I had seen all day was evident both from the guard's swinging arms and the blood on some of the men's shirts.



Photo: A group of arrested people wait to be loaded into trucks to take them to central Khartoum from their camp for displaced people just south of the town Tuesday, May 24, 2005. Thousands of police descended on the camp Tuesday to make arrests in connection with deadly clashes last week between police and residents resisting being moved.

State Minister of Interior Ahmed Mohamed Haroon told reporters 50 camp residents were arrested in an operation that began early Tuesday in connection with last week's violence, which left 14 policemen and three civilians dead. He said six others had been arrested earlier. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)

Tags: Darfur Sudan BBC Jonah+Fisher Africa

Britain to send military advisers and civilian vehicles to Darfur Sudan

UPI report May 24 says Britain will send military advisers and civilian vehicles to Darfur but not troops, Defence Secretary John Reid has said.

Reid said Britain was offering 600 civilian vehicles, military headquarters' support and planners to support the AU peacekeeping mission.

Britain is also expected to offer extra funds to provide additional logistical support.

Other countries pledging help included France and Spain, which will provide aircraft to transport African troops, and Holland, which has offered communications.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Britain France Spain Africa

Sudan forces surround southerners in Soba Aradi

May 24 reports from BBC and SiberNews. Excerpts:

More than 1,000 armed Sudanese security forces have surrounded an illegal shanty town full of Southerners about 30km south of Khartoum, where violent clashes killed at least 17 policemen and residents last week.

Machine guns mounted on pick-up vehicle are pointing at the ramshackle houses in Soba Aradi which is in a suburb of the capital, Khartoum. Several lorry loads of men and women have been arrested, beaten with sticks and taken to a local police station.

Last week 14 policemen died during an attempt to resettle residents. Officials said most of the victims died as crowds massed around the police station and burned it down.

A spokesman for the residents said no-one was being allowed out of Soba Aradi.

"They have cordoned off all areas and have taken tough measures to stop people leaving," Mohamed Ahmed Abdel Gader Arbab told Reuters news agency.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher says two million southerners squat illegally around Khartoum.

He says the Sudanese government has a long standing policy of trying to resettle these communities, but it is often to barren, desert sites that the people don't want to go to.

But Khartoum's governor, Abdul Haleem Mutafi, said police were hunting for known suspects in what was a criminal operation.

"This is nothing to do with the transfer of people. This is related to the security in the area. There are so many criminals in Soba Aradi," he told Reuters.
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A Reuters correspondent reports seeing at least 20 police vehicles and six lorries full of soldiers in an area outside the camp. Excerpt:

The police were heavily armed, with machine guns mounted on many of the vehicles.

The police were searching homes and had beaten some people before taking them away. It was not possible to say exactly how many had been detained.

A Reuters photographer and a driver as well as a BBC correspondent were released from police custody after being beaten and detained. The three men suffered bruising.

Security officials had said the detentions were a mistake.
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UPDATE May 24: Sudan'S State Minister of Interior Ahmed Mohamed Haroon told reporters 50 camp residents were arrested in an operation that began early Tuesday May 24, 2005 in connection with last week'S violence, which left 14 policemen and three civilians dead. Thousands of police descended on a camp for displaced people Tuesday to make arrests in connection with deadly clashes last week between police and residents resisting being moved. Abdul Haleem Mutaafi, the governor of Khartoum state, has said he planned to remove about 2,000 people who had settled in the camp from war zones in Sudan's south and west and send them elsewhere. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)

Tags: Soba+Aradi Sudan Khartoum Reuters BBC Africa

China has promised to join UN peacekeeping force in South Sudan

Sudanese Foreign Minister Ismail is currently in Vietnam after visiting China. He told the press today China has promised to join the UN peacekeeping force in southern Sudan.

[It would be interesting to know what John Garang thinks of such news. A few months ago, his team hotly objected to troops from any countries with commercial interests in the Sudan as they are bound to be onside with Khartoum.

News reports are emerging once again about French energy giant Total pursuing its legal right to explore oil in southern Sudan - the same area of land that Dr Garang's team signed over to fledgling White Nile, a UK-based shell company that has no experience of oil exploration but provides an entry to the prestigious London markets.]

Recent posts re oil in South Sudan and Darfur:

March 28, 2005: Sudan signs $400m contract with Sudanese White Nile Petroleum for oil field development in southern Sudan
April 18, 2005: White Nile must provide another document to relist shares
April 16, 2005: Sudan says oil discovered in impoverished Darfur
April 3, 2005: Sudan Watch: Oil found in South Darfur - Oil issues threaten to derail Sudan hopes for peace
Use search bar at top of this page for key words, ie oil, China, White Nile.
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Egyptian parliament approves sending troops to Darfur

The Egyptian People's Assembly (PA),the lower house of the parliament, approved Monday (May 23) a decision by President Hosni Mubarak on sending peacekeeping forces to Darfur, the official MENA news agency reported.

The PA said under the request of the UN, Mubarak has proposed to send peacekeeping forces to Darfur for a period of six years, adding that Sudan's security has much to do with Egypt's security.- via SudanTribune May 23, 2005.
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Sudan to set up criminal court to try war crimes in Darfur

Sudanese Foreign Minister Ismail said Sudan will set up a court to try Sudanese citizens accused of war crimes in Darfur within the next three months at the latest.

The UN Security Council in March referred Darfur war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. But it also left the door open for Sudan to hold its own trials provided these were credible, saying the ICC should encourage such domestic efforts.

Speaking to the press in China, the minister said that Khartoum is cooperating with the AU in this respect and that a Sudanese committee, headed by the minister of justice, would shortly announce the setting up of the court and name the general prosecutor.

Ismail promised the trials would be public and under the supervision of the AU adding that the ICC should encourage such local efforts. Full Story via Sudan Tribune May 22, 2005.



Photo: A special judge, sits in court in Nyala Sept 30, 2004 to try six Sudanese men accused of belonging to the Janjaweed, who killed 24 people in the southern Darfur region in Oct 2003. (Reuters).
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Security police censor English-language daily

Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today (May 23) at the action of the Sudanese state security police in banning an entire issue of the English-language Khartoum Monitor newspaper in the earlier hours of 21 May after the editor refused to withdraw a report and an editorial, and then returning the following evening to scrutinise the content of the next day's issue.

[Note, IFEX covers the same news story and points out that Article 19 promotes free expression in peace process.]

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa Egypt China Censorship

EU supports Darfur's peace force and offers airlift for Darfur operation

Further to a recent post here, the EUobserver confirms the EU defence ministers meeting in Brussels today offered to provide air transport assistance to the African Union (AU) for Darfur - stressing that the bloc would not be stepping on NATO's toes. Excerpt:

"All of the ministers took the view that the EU must respond positively", said Luxembourg defence minister Luc Frieden, speaking of the African Union's call for help earlier this month.

"The European Union has had a long presence in Africa and good ties with the AU, it's on that basis that we are building this mission in Darfur", said Mr Frieden.

However, he stressed that the EU was aware that it should not get into "competition" with NATO, which is already drawing up plans for military assistance to the African Union force and which has an overlapping membership with the EU.

But there appeared to be confusion about what had been finally agreed. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that the 25-nation bloc could provide airlift capabilities.

He said that as soon as the African troops are ready, the EU would provide assistance to airlift soldiers.

"As soon as the troops are ready, we'll be ready to transport them to theatre", said Mr Solana.

France has offered to provide air transport for up to 1,200 soldiers.

But the British defence secretary, John Reid, who repeatedly stressed the importance of working with NATO, implied that a final decision had not yet been taken.

The EU was also at pains to stress that this is an operation that is to be run by the African Union.

"The soldiers which are there are African Union soldiers", said Mr Solana while Mr Frieden said "the most important aspect of the operation will not be to provide military personnel".

Complete list

The ministers agreed that they would complete a list of what they would provide to the African Union within the next 48 hours, but some countries appeared to be reluctant with the British defence secretary pointing out how many other committments his country already had - particularly in Iraq.

The defence ministers discussion on Monday follows an appeal by the AU's head, Alpha Oumar Konare, to both the EU and NATO earlier this month for help to end the civil war in Sudan which has claimed around 300,000 lives through violence, hunger and disease.

The Darfur conflict broke out in February 2003 after rebels took up arms against the government. Khartoum was then accused of retaliating by arming local Arab militia, who murdered and raped ordinary civilians.

Both Mr Solana and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the head of NATO, will on Thursday attend a conference in Addis Ababa to co-ordinate offers of help in the Darfur region.



Photo: French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie greets British counterpart John Reid in Brussels. The European Union pledged to coordinate with NATO in providing support personnel, training and equipment - including anything from vehicles, weapons and tents, playing down any strains over who should do what. (AFP/Gerard Cerles)

Supporting the Sudan mission has fueled some tension between the EU and NATO; more precisely, between the US and France, whose foreign minister Michel Barnier said NATO should not be "the world's policeman." - via DefenseNews May 23, 2005.
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EU offers airlift for Darfur operation

BBC confirms the EU has pledged planes and lorries to transport thousands of African troops to Darfur.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana noted that four countries - Rwanda, South Africa, Senegal and Nigeria - had offered troops for the Darfur mission, and said the European bloc could for example provide air transport for them.

"As soon as the troops ... are ready, we will be ready to transport them to the theatre" of operations, he said.

Full Report by Honor Mahony EUobserver Brussels May 23, 2005.



Photo: EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana (Photo: The Council of the European Union) AU lists military hardware it needs from donors for Darfur peacekeeping.
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Full text: Jose Manuel Barroso's speech

Full text of speech given by the president of the European commission to the European partnership for aid and development at the London School of Economics, Friday May 20, 2005. - via Guardian UK May 23, 2005.
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AU hosts meeting on Darfur May 26 along with UN chief, NATO and EU leaders

The African Union (AU) will host a donors' meeting on the Darfur crisis May 26 in Addis Ababa, along with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as well as NATO and EU leaders.

From Addis, Mr Annan is scheduled to travel to Khartoum to meet Sudanese Government officials, AU officials and UN system representatives. In Rumbek, he is scheduled to meet John Garang, Chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which fought a war against the Sudanese Government for many years before reaching a peace agreement and getting some autonomy this year.

Last month, the pan-African body agreed to increase the size of its Darfur mission from 3,320 to 7,731 by the end of September and appealed to the AU's 53 members to support the operation with troops and cash. - via DefenseNews May 23, 2005.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union European+Union NATO

UN Sudan Situation Report 22 May 2005 - One dead, nine wounded in clash at Darfur camp

Click here to read full text of United Nations Country Team in Sudan (UNCT) report posted at ReliefWeb May 22, 2005.
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One dead, nine wounded in clash at Darfur camp, UN in Sudan confirms

UN News report 23 May 2005 excerpt:

UNMIS reported that on 19 May, a clash between police and merchants in Kalma camp housing internally displaced persons (IDPs) in South Darfur state reportedly resulted in one civilian death and nine injuries - six IDPs and three policemen.

Following the incident, police from the African Union (AU) mission in Darfur and elements of the AU Protection Force established a round-the-clock presence at the camp. The situation appears to have calmed, and yesterday, agencies were allowed to re-enter the camp to resume humanitarian assistance.

Meanwhile, in the North Darfur area of El-Fasher, the AU received reports of fighting in the areas of Amou valley near Turiyaa between the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) factions, and armed tribesmen.

In West Darfur, heavy fighting reportedly broke out near Golo, Jebel Marra, between SLA and Government forces on 16 and 17 May. On 19 May, a series of reported cattle-rustling related incidents between nomads and local farmers and Chadian-Zagawa nomads north of Seleah resulted in several deaths.

UNMIS said the situation in Seleah presently is calm, but tensions still high, and the probability of further conflicts is also high. The Mission has not yet suspended movement through Seleah, but is monitoring the security situation closely.

AU limits locations of warring sides in Darfur - Africans must change negative media image says Rwanda's President

The African Union (AU) began its operation today to limit the locations of forces of both the Sudanese government and the rebel groups in Darfur, local media said.

The AU team of verification and limitations of locations in Darfur started its visit to Darfur to specify the locations controlled by the warring parties in accordance with the ceasefire agreement signed in April 2004.

Full Report via Xinhua/ST May 22, 2005.


Photo: Rebels from JEM, one of Darfur's main rebel groups (Reuters/Sudan Tribune)
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Sudanese official says war in Darfur complex

David Rosenberg, coordinator of the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition who attended a forum said the deputy ambassador for Sudan in the US was presenting disinformation at the forum.

"He is coming to talk to Muslims, who understandably want to feel pride in their traditions, and enlist them in his propaganda campaign," Rosenberg said. Full Story at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Ann Rodgers via Sudan Tribune May 22, 2005. Excerpt:

The Sudanese deputy ambassador in the USA argued yesterday at a forum that complex regional ethnic and economic rivalries started the war in Darfur, and that the Sudanese government had a legitimate right to intervene.

He described Darfur as plagued by ethnic and tribal conflicts, despite centuries of intermarriage that have made the rivals indistinguishable from one another. The recently resolved 20-year civil war in the southern region of Sudan made arms readily accessible to these groups, who did not believe the national government would protect them.

When armed groups destroyed government airplanes and captured the top Sudanese Air Force general in 2003, the government responded, he said. "This is a tribal conflict ... but I am not saying that is the whole thing," he said. He also cited "ecological problems" over control of access to grazing lands and other natural resources.

He argued that the 16-year-old national government has benefitted Darfur, increasing public high schools from 16 to 250, universities from zero to three and hospitals from three to 23. He referred to the Janjaweed, a group of raiders accused of mass murder, rape and other crimes, as "outlaws."
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Africans must change negative media image - Kagame

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Rwanda's President Kagame says the international media had portrayed the 1994 genocide as the result of primitive tribal killings, rather than an organised campaign perpetrated by the former government, reducing pressure for outside powers to act. Excerpt:

Rwanda's president accused western media on Sunday of portraying Africa as a continent wracked with poverty, war and disease, and he challenged Africans to change that image.

"One of the reasons Africa is unable to attract enough foreign direct investment, which we need for our development, is the constant negative reporting," President Paul Kagame said in an address to the International Press Institute World Congress.

Kagame said it was a common belief on the continent that the international press gives Africa only negative coverage and ignores positive developments on the continent.

"I believe that we in Africa must take responsibility for the sorry state of affairs in our continent, most of which form and generate the kind of reporting that we have witnessed," Kagame said.

Kagame said in his own country, the international media had portrayed the 1994 genocide as the result of primitive tribal killings, rather than an organised campaign perpetrated by the former government, reducing pressure for outside powers to act.

"Constant reference by the media to tribal killings, civil war, anarchy and chaos obscured and minimised the genocide that was taking place and the complicity and indifference of some powers," he said.

"As a result the U.N. member states were not called upon to recognise the genocide that was under way and did not feel compelled to take the appropriate action".

Paris-based press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders says Rwanda's government has harassed and arbitrarily detained several journalists in recent years, undermining press freedom in the tiny central African country.

Kagame urged the media to highlight efforts by the continent to come up with African solutions to the conflicts in Burundi, Sudan, Somalia and Ivory Coast.

The International Press Institute, a group comprised of journalists, editors and media executives from more than 120 countries, is meeting in Nairobi to discuss press freedom, with a particular focus on Africa.

Full Report by Wangui Kanina via Reuters May 22, 2005.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Kagame Propaganda

Sudan's Soba massacre, or the unwise Khartoum State land policy - IMF chief visits Chad

Sudan's police ordered a printing house to stop printing Saturday's edition of the Khartoum Monitor, Sudan's only English-language newspaper, after the editor refused to change an article and an editorial that criticised the government's treatment of displaced people.

The newspaper reported eyewitnesses saying 33 people were killed and that police had fired into the crowd. The report did not include the government version of the story, which said no weapons were fired.

Sudan has a history of suspending newspapers and detaining journalists. The government has officially lifted state censorship of newspapers but press restrictions continue.



Photo: An armed Sudanese policeman contains women and men as they wait to receive food staples at a distribution point in the Internally Displaced Camp (IDP) of Mourni, the largest in West Darfur. At least 17 people were killed in clashes between refugees and police in a squatter area some 10 kilometres (six miles) east of the Sudanese capital, police said.(AFP/File/Cris Bouroncle)
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Lone woman on a mission



Photo (ADF) Squadron Leader Ruth Elsley, 36, is looming as a legend in Khartoum. She is the first woman to become the head of an Australian Defence Force's overseas contingent, leading Australia's 15-person team as part of the United Nations' peacekeeping mission, Operation Azure.

And to date, Squadron Leader Elsley is the only woman officer in Khartoum among some 170 males from about 40 countries who comprise the headquarters staff. - Full Story at Air Force News.
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Mine clearing course for Sudanese

May 20 AllAfrica report says military personnel from Sudan will be trained at a recently opened centre for education in mine clearing. Excerpt:

The Sh500 million International Mine Action Training Centre will drill the soldiers on de-mining and neutralising landmines in their country in line with the recent peace agreement and plans to resettle refugees.

There are about 80,000 Sudanese refugees at Kakuma camp in Turkana District, near the border with Sudan.

The soldiers will join 100 Kenyan military engineers already training at the centre located in Embakasi, Nairobi, before being deployed at home. They will be followed by a 75-strong company from Sudan's integrated forces.

The Sudanese will be expected to complete their training and return home to clear the landmines, especially in the south, before the more than 200,000 refugees in Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia are repatriated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

On Tuesday, the UNHCR's local representative, Mr George Okoth-Obbo, announced he expected to conclude the Sh7.3 billion repatriation job by October. It would include awareness programmes on landmines and Aids.
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International Monetary Fund chief visits Chad



Photo: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Rodrigo Rato visits a medical centre in tent at Oure Cassoni camp, Chad May 20, 2005. The camp on the Chad-Sudan border is home to over 26,000 refugees. (Reuters/IMF/Stephen Jaffe/Handout) Full Report.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa Ruth+Elsley Chad IMF

Sudanese govt still supporting Ugandan rebel group LRA

A news report from Uganda says accusations have emerged that the Sudanese government still supports the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. The new claims emerged at meeting of civil society groups in Juba by the head of the Anglican Church in Lomega, Rev. Paul Jugusuku.

"The Sudan government is still supporting the LRA," Rev. Jugusuku told the BBC's Network Africa adding, "Every night I have been in Juba the antonov comes and drops food and ammunition to the LRA."

The accusations come two days after the Sudan government renewed the protocol allowing Ugandan forces to operate in south Sudan to fight the LRA rebels. Full Report by The Monitor via Sudan Tribune, May 20. 2005.



Photo: Joseph Kony, leader of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels (ST)

Sudan Tribune report May 21 says John Garang calls for reconciliation and unity among southern Sudanese.

Note, the report makes no mention of Khartoum recently renewing its agreement with Uganda to allow Ugandan troops into southern Sudan to fight the LRA group of Ugandan rebels that many say are supported by Khartoum.

However, it does say some critics, who say SPLM/A leader John Garang essentially acts in the interests of his Dinka people - the largest ethnic group in southern Sudan - warn that militia groups opposing him could move in, once Sudanese government troops withdrew from their southern positions in August.

Read more on LRA at Uganda Watch and Sudan Watch.
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Militia blocks aid delivery in Southern Sudan

Part of a major UN aid operation in Sudan has been suspended and is under review after a militia leader blocked the delivery of food, reports the BBC.



Photo: A barge carrying tonnes of food aid leaves New Fanjak in southern Sudan May 18, 2005. The UN. has suspended an aid operation after a pro-government militia leader blocked the delivery of food. The aid operation is now being re-evalauted, following security concerns after the assistance was rejected, May 18, 2005. (Reuters/ST)



Photo: Southern Sudanese men carry bags of food back onto a barge carrying food aid in New Fanjak in southern Sudan May 18, 2005. Distribution did not place as planned but is expected to restart on Saturday.

The barge convoy has been delivering humanitarian aid which includes food, farm implements fishing equipment seeds and educational material for schools to populations living along the Nile river. Reuters/Beatrice Mategwa

Full Story by Jonah Fisher, BBC, southern Sudan May 18, 2005.
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Report to UN Security Council on UN assistance to the AU Mission in the Sudan

Excerpt from the Secretary-General's report to the United Nations Security Council 3 May 2005:

"AMIS has been a groundbreaking initiative for the African Union and its supporters within the international community. The Mission has accomplished a remarkable amount in a very short time and despite significant constraints. Those constraints have been identified in the report of the AU-led assessment mission. It is now critical for all concerned to do their part. States members of the African Union must now identify personnel to join AMIS; the AU Commission must strengthen planning and management capacity in order to support an expanded mission; and partners must provide the African Union with the means required to carry out a costly and challenging task."

Tags: Darfur Sudan Uganda United+Nations

NATO on alert to provide help in Darfur Sudan

Further details relating to the following report by the Guardian's diplomatic editor, Ewen MacAskill, are in yesterday's post here below entitled NATO and African Union set out plans for Darfur action:

Nato ordered its planners yesterday to begin urgently drawing up proposals to help out in Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than a million displaced.

Nato's 26 ambassadors, meeting in Brussels, approved a request for help from the African Union, the pan-continental organisation, which has 2,600 troops on the ground.

This is the African Union's first peace operation and it is struggling, partly because of the scale of the crisis, partly because of a lack of experience, but mainly because of a lack of logistical support.

The AU, until now, has been reluctant to admit it is unable to cope, or to ask Nato for assistance.

The crisis in Darfur began two years ago when the Sudanese government, engaged in a conflict with rebels, used a combination of its own military and militia groups to attack isolated villages.

The UN assistant secretary general, Hedi Annabi, briefed the UN earlier this month that attacks on civilians, rape, kidnapping and banditry were on the increase. He said the attacks had been carried out by the militia.

International military involvement has grown rapidly from 12 months ago, when there were no international forces on the ground. In June last year, the AU had 10 monitors on the ground.

Soon afterwards, the AU put in 300 troops to protect them. The force has grown to 2,409 troops and 244 police. This is expected to rise to a total of about 3,200 by the summer, increasing to 7,700 in September.

A Nato official said yesterday that the organisation would not be putting troops on the ground and it should not be seen as comparable to Nato involvement in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

The priority for Nato in Darfur is to provide a team to help the AU with planning, co-ordination, communications and training.

Among the AU's requirements are helicopters, a necessity for operating in an area where roads are frequently im passable and where fast deployment is imperative in a conflict dealing with marauding militia bands.

A Canadian government representative offered at the Nato meeting to provide helicopters, and a British official said that if the US also offered to help with the airlift, that should be taken up.

A British official expressed hope that the AU force could be expanded further, to about 12,000. In addition, the UN is deploying 10,000 peacekeepers elsewhere in Sudan to maintain a ceasefire in the north-south civil war. The official suggested that eventually the two forces could merge into one UN peacekeeping force.

If it had been suggested at the outset that a UN peacekeeping force of that size, supported by Nato, would be put in place, the Sudanese government would have blocked it, the official said.

The AU presence is intended to reduce the violence and create a safe enough environment to encourage the million-plus people who have fled to camps to return home. The AU force is too small to cope with an area the size of France, and villages continue to be burned and refugees besieged in their camps. The militias have also become more difficult to deal with.

Nato only became involved in Darfur last week, when a team of two was sent from headquarters on a reconnaissance mission to the region.

The request for Nato help was made by the AU president, Alpha Oumar Konare, on Tuesday. "It is important we get the security situation under control very quickly," he said in Brussels. The Nato secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said: "The principle should be that the AU is principally responsible. Nato has no ambition to be the gendarme of the world."

The AU has also asked the EU to help, but the British official said yesterday that it did not have the heavy airlifting capacity that Nato has. Details are to be worked out at a meeting next Thursday in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia, attended by the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and representatives of the AU, Nato and the EU.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union European+Union NATO

2nd Roundup: NATO and African Union set out plans for Darfur action

Further to today's Sudan Watch post African Union President visits NATO HQ Brussels, here is a second roundup up via Brussels/Tripoli (Deutsche Presse Agentur) via ReliefWeb May 17, 2005:

NATO and the African Union on Tuesday agreed joint action to end the crisis in Darfur, with the 26-nation western military alliance providing vital logistical support to African troops in the region.

A formal NATO decision on helping the AU is expected within the coming days, said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer after talks with Alpha Oumar Konare, head of the AU Commission.

Scheffer said he would be going to AU headquarters in Addis Abeba to discuss details of NATO's first mission in Africa.

Konare, who met NATO envoys in Brussels, told reporters his organisation needed help in transporting and housing African troops in Darfur as well as support in the communication sector.

But he insisted that the mission would be under AU leadership, with only African troops deployed in Darfur.

The AU wanted a "non-exclusive partnership" with NATO, Konare insisted, adding: "The AU will lead the mission (in Darfur) and will be in control."

"There will no non-African troops," he insisted. Scheffer said the alliance was planning a swift response to the AU request, saying he was confident NATO's decision-making council would agree to help AU in the coming days.

He promised "full transparency" with the European Union which is also working to help AU troops in Darfur.

NATO diplomats said the alliance could also provide equipment to AU forces struggling to bring peace to the war-ravaged region.

The United States is pressing for quick NATO assistance for the AU but France has so far been wary of alliance involvement in Africa.

Paris is expected to give the go-ahead to NATO aid for African troops but is insisting that the alliance should remain in close contact with the E.U. and the United Nations.

The E.U. has sent military advisers to help the African peacekeeping mission and is spending about 120 million dollars to cover some of the costs of the operation.

In Tripoli earlier, a meeting of representatives of seven Arab and African countries on Darfur agreed that negotiations should be resumed at the end of May in Abuja, Nigeria.

The African Union-sponsored negotiations held in the Nigerian capital broke down last December. Consecutive rounds had brought together representatives of the Sudanese government and rebel factions to discuss settling the conflict that began in February 2003.

The Tripoli gathering, hosted by Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, was attended by the presidents of Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Nigeria, Eritrea and the vice-president of Gabon. Representatives of the rebel factions were invited to the meeting, but did not attend.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose country chairs the African Union, said at the opening of the meeting late Monday that a solution to Darfur needed to come from within Africa, and that "any delay would only encourage foreign intervention in African affairs".

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustapha Othman Ismail, at a news conference in Tripoli late Monday, reiterated the government's position that any trials for crimes committed in Darfur would be held in Sudan with assistance by African legal advisers, reported MENA, Egypt's official news agency.

Ismail's comment came in response to a question about whether the government would respond to the request by the International Criminal Court in April to turn over persons suspected of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union European+Union NATO

Sudan: African Union President visits NATO HQ Brussels

Further to Sudan Watch post April 29, 2005 entitled NATO's role in Darfur - AU commission chairman will visit NATO headquarters May 17 here is a copy of NATO's report via ReliefWeb on what happened yesterday, the first visit by a senior official of the African Union to NATO:

Mr. Alpha Oumar Konare, the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, visited NATO HQ on 17 May to discuss possible Alliance support for the African Union's peacekeeping operation in Darfur.

He met for talks with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and addressed the North Atlantic Council, the Alliance's principal decision-making body.

African Union in the lead

Mr. Konare outlined the current situation in Darfur, the African Union's plans for strengthening its peacekeeping operation in the region and the support the Union would require.

The visit was a follow-up to a letter sent by Mr. Konare to the Secretary General on 26 April, suggesting discussions on the possibility of NATO providing logistical support to the African Union's peacekeeping operation in Darfur.

NATO has agreed to open exploratory talks, and the NATO Council will now discuss Mr. Konare's request, to see what support the Alliance could provide. NATO will also engage in close co-ordination with the European Union and the United Nations.

The support Mr. Konare requested included transport, training and communications.

"It is the African Union which is leading this mission," the Secretary General told reporters at a joint press point with President Konare, "It is the African Union which asked for our support."

The Secretary General was also invited by President Konare to attend talks on international support for the African Union's operation in Darfur in Addis Ababa on 26 May.

This was the first visit by a senior official of the African Union to NATO.
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Sudan: NATO to explore Darfur options

For future reference, here is a copy of a further NATO report via ReliefWeb May 18, 2005:

On 18 May the North Atlantic Council agreed to task the Alliance's military authorities to provide, as a matter of urgency, advice on possible assistance NATO could offer to the African Union in Darfur.

This advice will be prepared in full consultation and transparency with the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations.

The decision by the North Atlantic Council follows a request on 26 April by the African Union for consideration by NATO of the possibility of providing logistical support to the African Union's peacekeeping operation in Darfur.

On 17 May, Mr. Alpha Oumar Konare, the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, visited NATO, providing details on the kinds of assistance that the African Union would require.

The Secretary General is due to attend talks on international support for the African Union's operation in Darfur in Addis Ababa on 26 May.
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Briefing on current issues by the NATO Spokesman

NATO Spokesman James Appathurai looks back on the key events of April. He talks about a request by the African Union for logistic support from NATO for the Union's peacekeeping operation in the Darfur region of Sudan. He then goes to preview an important Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council security forum, due to be held in May in Sweden.

Click here to download NATO Speech: Monthly briefing by the NATO Spokesman 29 April 2005 - Windows Media Player and view "Support for African Union in Darfur" or transcript. Here is an excerpt:

"Talks are beginning between NATO and the African Union but also between NATO and the European Union and the United Nations to ensure that we know what the requirements of the African Union are, what is already being provided, as I say, by the European Union, by the United Nations and on a bilateral basis, and where NATO can add value because that is absolutely the important thing here -- NATO should add value to what is already being provided to the requirements of the African Union.

So this work is going forward, the [UN] Secretary General is of course in direct contact with his counterparts in the other international organisations and the staffs at the working level are already in contact as well. We will see where this goes forward, an African Union delegation is expected in Brussels later in May and that will be an important time for discussions on how and whether- whether and how NATO can provide support to the AU in a pragmatic way in support of and in partnership with the other relevant organisations and countries that are providing support."

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union European+Union NATO