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

Darfur peace talks to resume within two weeks - Sudanese president

According to various news reports today, the mini-summit on Darfur held in Tripoli ended with an agreement to resume peace talks between rebels and Khartoum on May 30/June 1.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Ismail is quoted as saying the next round of Darfur talks should be final.

At the summit, leaders of Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Eritrea and Chad reviewed the situation in Darfur, saying the conflict should be resolved within the framework of the African Union.

Full Report.



Photo: Libyan leader Col Gaddafi (C) attends an African mini-summit on Darfur in Tripoli, Libya. (AFP/Osama Ibrahim)

Note, Eritrea has good relations with all the major opposition movements in Sudan, many of them armed groups that have openly pledged from Asmara in Eritrea to overthrow the government in Khartoum.

Sudan has demanded that Eritrea not harbour armed Sudanese opponents or offer them assistance as a condition for normalising relations, Foreign Minister Ismail said. (AFP/File/Yasser al-Zayyat)

Cihan News Agency Istanbul report May 18 on summit says Sudanese Embassy Press Attache in Ankara Abdurrahim Omer Muhiddin visited Zaman Newspaper and Cihan News Agency on Tuesday. Excerpt:

Muhiddin said the genocide never took place in the region and defined the Darfur issue is an issue of the "immigrants and the locals". The issue has been distorted in the international arena claimed the Sudanese official emphasizing that the problem became an issue due to an ongoing struggle between the immigrant Arabs and Negro locals. According to Muhiddin, such points of view were absolutely erroneous. The Sudanese official said: "It is very difficult to make the distinction between the Arabs and Negroes in The Sudan. Two societies mingled with each other like finger and a finger nail."



Photo: Sudanese President Lt. Gen. Omar el-Bashir attends the 3rd African summit to discuss the Darfur crisis late Monday night May 16, 2005, in Tripoli, Libya. (AP).

"The Abuja negotiations should be resumed by the end of the month", President Bashir told reporters.

"All the countries represented at the summit agreed to send delegations to attend the Abuja talks and contribute in narrowing the views between the negotiators," he said. Full Report AFP May 17, 2005.
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Four killed as refugees near Khartoum clash with Sudanese forces

May 17 Reuters report - four people killed [Update via Reuters Sudan says 17 dead] - and dozens injured when Sudanese police and soldiers clashed with refugees from southern Sudan in a camp near Khartoum, witnesses say. Excerpt:

Slums and camps surrounding the sprawling capital are home to more than two million people from all over Sudan, but most of them are southerners who have fled two decades of civil war.

The areas have little or no running water or electricity, and aid agencies have found it difficult to fund assistance to them. Khartoum authorities say they want to demolish the slums to relocate residents to permanent, planned housing plots.

The governor of Khartoum insists the relocations are done with the consent of the people and their leaders. But the UN has criticised the policy, saying the relocations of the residents are not carried out in consultation with the people, and they are moved to desert areas miles out of the capital where there are no services.

One UN official at the scene said hundreds of people were fleeing the fighting. "It is not possible to move around inside still," the official said.

The UN sent representatives to the area to try to calm the situation.



Photo: Refugees near Khartoum clash with Sudanese forces

"The troops, army and police came in this morning and they shot at the civilians," said Majak Machar, a resident of the camp in Soba Aradi, about 30 km (19 miles) south of Khartoum.

"They wanted to take the people to another area and the people fought them because they didn't want to go."

"The civilians then attacked the police and have killed at least two of them" said Majak Machar, a resident of the camp in Soba Aradi.

May 18 update: Governor of Khartoum responds



Photo/Report Associated Press: Governer of Khartoum state, Dr Abdul Haleem Mutaafi, right, tells a press conference in Khartoum Wednesday, May 18, 2005 that a major political party which he declined to name had incited refugees of the Soba Aradi area leading to violence.

Sitting beside him in military fatigues is Tareq Mahgoub, Police director of Khartoum state. Many of the estimated two million war refugees camped around Khartoum are opposing forced relocation away from the capital. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)



Photo: Southern Sudanese refugees leave the camp in Soba Aradi, about 30 km (19 miles) south of the capital Khartoum, May 18, 2005. At least 17 people were killed and dozens wounded in clashes which erupted when Sudanese police tried to relocate refugees mainly from southern Sudan away from a camp near Khartoum on Wednesday, officials said. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin
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Sudan allows Ugandan forces to operate in Sudan

There has been no word in the press from John Garang and his former SPLM rebel group on the news that Sudan's President and Uganda's defence minister discussed Ugandan forces' deployment in Sudan under a UN mandate - and also renewed their agreement permitting Ugandan troops to continue to hunt the Ugandan LRA in Sudan.

The new agreement extends the Ugandan forces' stay in Sudan to June 30, 2005.

Presumably, the report at AllAfrica relates to South Sudan - it says the agreement, originally signed in April 2001, yielded tremendous results for Uganda. It has been renewed repeatedly since then and last expired on December 31, 2004.

"The agreement between Khartoum and SPLA has changed the entire scenario in southern Sudan," a source said.

Full Report May 17, 2005.
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Note: SOAT alert May 18 reports further arrests and detention of alleged SLA sympathisers.
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The Irish Government May 18 welcomed the release of Sudanese human rights worker Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam who was arrested in Kharthoum, ahead of his trip to Ireland to receive the inaugural Front Line award from President Mary McAleese.
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Sudan and Uganda sending troops to Somalia

Somali.net report May 16 says Sudan and Uganda are sending one battalion each to Somalia in the coming days.

Other African nations will take part in logistics and transportation of troops and equipment. These soldiers will help the new government relocate to Somalia from Nairobi, Kenya where it is temporarily located now.

Sudan and Uganda share a long border and often accuse each other of arming and training rebels.
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5,000 people in southern Sudan flee from Ugandan rebels

At least 5,000 people in southern Sudan have fled food shortages and attacks by the rebel LRA and sought refuge in northwestern Uganda since January, the UN High Commission for Refugee agency (UNHCR) said.

"[Some] said they were running away from LRA attacks, while the majority have fled their camp of Nimule in southern Sudan to Arua in Uganda due to food shortages, as relief supplies to the camp stopped some time back," UNHCR spokeswoman Roberta Russo, told IRIN on Saturday.

Full Report IRIN May 16, 2005.
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Update on Canada

Darcey in Canada explains the latest re Canadian troops for Darfur. More from Darcey later as and when there is news.

Update: Here is some: Kilgour speaks. Thanks Darcey.
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UN website for Sudan mission

Thanks to Coalition for Darfur for finding the new website of the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS).
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Let's all be hummingbirds

Warm thanks to Ansel in America for this Japanese story, courtesy of Wangari Maathai:

When the forest where the hummingbird lived went up in flames, the other animals ran out to save themselves. But the hummingbird stayed, flying to and from a nearby river with drops of water in its beak to pour on the fire.

From a distance, the other animals laughed and mocked it. "What do you think you are doing?" they shouted. "This fire is overwhelming. You can't do anything."

Finally, the hummingbird turned to them and said, "I'm doing what I can."

[We can all be like the hummingbird, doing whatever we can says Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is Kenya's deputy minister for environment, a member of parliament for the Tetu constituency, and founder of the Green Belt Movement.]

Tags: Darfur Sudan Libya Eritrea

Europeans Offer To Back Africa in Darfur - Queen's Speech

May 17 report by Lorne Cook, Agence France-Presse, Brussels via DefenseNews.com:

The European Union and NATO offered military support but no troops May 17 to an African peacekeeping mission in Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region, downplaying signs of tension over who should help.

Speaking after talks with visiting African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, the EU's executive commission proposed training police, offering strategic airlift and air observation support, and providing logistical help.

"The African Union (has) drawn our attention to the need for greater logistical support, particularly for transporting troops, particularly for housing troops, equipping troops," said EU aid commissioner Louis Michel.

"So, we have taken careful note," he told reporters.

The Darfur conflict, which pits rebels against pro-government militia, has resulted in the deaths of between 180,000 and 300,000 people and forced some 2 million others to flee their homes.

Last month, U.N. humanitarian affairs chief Jan Egeland said there was an urgent need to expand the AU's mission to prevent the number of displaced Darfur residents from rising to 3 million or 4 million.

The fighting began in February 2003 after black African groups rebelled against what they saw as persecution from Khartoum's Arab-led government.

The African Union hopes to have almost 8,000 troops in Darfur by the end of September, but EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana sought to allay any concerns that Brussels would send troops.

"The soldiers will be African Union," he said after his own brief round of talks with Konare. "The only thing the European Union is going to do is provide planners, these will be in the tens, not in the thousands."

Konare insisted that the AU wants to be in full control of the mission and that it is only seeking logistical help and support of a more general manner.

Providing support has, indirectly, been a source of tension between the EU and NATO; more precisely, between France and the United States.

France is opposed to a NATO role in Sudan - playing "the world's policeman" in the words of French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier - and Solana and NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer were clearly aware of the problem.

"There will be a meeting later in the month of all the contributors, the European Union and NATO, the member states ... meeting in Addis [Ababa, Ethiopia] to see how things can be done better," Solana said.

De Hoop Scheffer, for his part, said the alliance is looking into how it might be able to help Darfur in "full transparency with the European Union."

"I'm confident that NATO will be able to answer the call," he said, alluding potentially to what would effectively be the first alliance mission in Africa.

"NATO does not have the ambition of being the world's policeman," he went on, and said it would be possible "to imagine a certain division of responsibilities."

"Who would do what, is a little early to say," de Hoop Scheffer added.
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Full text of the Queen's Speech

FT.com publishes the full text of the Queen's speech at the state opening of parliament on May 17, 2005.

Note, it includes the line: "My Government will continue to push for a resolution of the conflict in Darfur."

Tags: Darfur Sudan Chad Africa NATO European Union African Union

UNICEF estimates the number of people in Darfur camps will increase to more than 3,000,000 in coming month

Now that online shopping and donating to humanitarian causes is so easy, I have decided to only shop at charities for cards and gifts. One of my favourites for children is the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF.

A few weeks ago, I did most of my Christmas shopping at UNICEF's online shop. Loads of cards. Good quality wooden children's toys and other nice gifts. Plus I ordered 20 Make Poverty History white bangles to drop inside greetings cards and Christmas stockings for children.

Within a few days of placing the order online, a neatly packed box was delivered direct to my door with a note saying the bangles are out of stock but would follow by mail in a few weeks.

Please read this excerpt from a report on Darfur by UNICEF UK May 10, 2005:

Signs of drought are everywhere. Whole villages are being abandoned as residents seek stable and safe access to water. The situation is even worse for displaced people living in the camps. UNICEF estimates that in the upcoming months the population in the camps will swell by an additional half million, bringing the total number of displaced people in Darfur to above 3,000,000.

The scenes at wells are equally chaotic. In Musbat, thousands will wait in line before sunrise for access to the only hand-pump in the town. Children are often pushed aside while waiting to fetch water. "These kids are probably expending more than a third of their daily calorie intake on water collection," said Brendan Doyle, a water and sanitation consultant for UNICEF. "They're returning to their families carrying containers of water outweighing themselves."

Photo: A UNICEF handpump has been positioned between the Al Riyad camp and El Geneina, enabling both communities to share access and interact. This also helps reduce potential friction between the two groups. (UNICEF UK/Kathryn Irwin)
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Darfur's children drop out of school in search of water

Bad news. Another emergency within an emergency. Darfur's children are dropping out of school to search for water.

See UNICEF's report on Darfur May 10, 2005. Excerpt:

Abdallah Hurry, a teacher at the Musbat elementary school in North Darfur, is losing students. Malnutrition and ongoing conflict have contributed immensely to the problem. These days, however, Abdallah is also losing students due to the lack of sufficient safe drinking water.

Extreme thirst is forcing students at Musbat and other schools in the area to spend their days trudging through the parched landscape. Besides dehydration, excursions into the surrounding landscape to find water expose children to other dangers, including sexual abuse from marauding rebel militias.

Across the North Darfur region, access to water is becoming scarce. Very little rainfall has caused scores of watering holes to dry up, while other wells have been poisoned by carcasses of dead animals. In addition, Government neglect of the water infrastructure has rendered half the area's pumps inoperable.

"What's happening here is an emergency within an emergency," warned Keith Mackenzie, UNICEF's Special Representative for the Darfur Crisis. "We've seen large scale displacement because of the conflict. Now it's happening because of the lack of food and water."

Photo: A man teaches a large group of children at a UNICEF-assisted school in the Kounoungo camp for Sudanese refugees. (UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt)



Photo: Children, accompanied by their teachers, wave UNICEF-supplied notebooks at their temporary school in an IDP camp in the town of Kass. Some 30,000 IDPs have taken refuge in the town - doubling its population. (UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt)
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Martin Bell reports direct from Darfur

A report [not dated] at UNICEF's website says UNICEF UK Ambassador for Humanitarian Emergencies and former BBC Correspondent Martin Bell travelled to Darfur to document the deteriorating humanitarian situation.

Martin sent a video report from a camp near the town of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.

Click here for Martin's latest video report.

[Note, I am a Mac user without the right application to view the video.]



Photo: An emaciated 16-month-old boy, Wayel, who is suffering from severe malnutrition, drinks from a glass held by an adult, at the UNICEF supported El Fasher Teaching Hospital in North Darfur. (UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt)
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Support to humanitarian organisations on the ground is vital

UNICEF says lack of food and water may also cause health problems and malnutrition and is concerned for the 1.5 million children under the age of 18 currently being affected.

"Support to humanitarian organisations on the ground is vital to ensure that they have the resources to fulfil their mandate", said Keith McKenzie, UNICEF's Special Representative in Darfur.

With 160 staff on the ground, UNICEF is supporting the following:

Education is a key intervention that provides a protective environment for children. Currently there are 180,000 children in school of the 450,000 school aged children, this is the highest enrolment rate in 30 years. In addition UNICEF supports child friendly spaces and provides training for troops, humanitarian and government workers on the protection of children.

Nutrition: UNICEF is responsible for providing supplies as well as technical assistance to therapeutic feeding centres.

Health: Providing essential drugs and training to 170 health centres

Water: Providing clean water and sanitation facilities.



Photo: Refugee children and women walk amidst their makeshift shelters in the Touloum camp, 80 kilometres from the Chad-Sudan border. The camp hosts an estimated 5,800 refugees from Darfur. (UNICEF/Hugues Laurenge)

Note UNICEF activities in Sudan and Chad.



Photo: A woman, Kaltoom Haj Tahir, feeds one of her seven children in the Abu Shouk IDP camp near El Fasher. The Abu Shouk camp shelters more than 30,000 IDPs. UNICEF is supporting the provision of health services, safe water and plastic sheeting in the camp. (UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt)
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UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow and son visit Sudan

Last November, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow and her son Seamus visited IDP camps in Darfur.

16-year-old Seamus is a UNICEF Youth Ambassador and is concerned about the effect of the conflict on boys and young men. He spoke with a number of teenagers and says they run the risk of joining armed groups.

"For the boys my age, the problem is they have nothing to do," he says. "They are really just stagnating in these communities. It's a big problem in that they are being recruited into local militias and resorting to banditry because they can't make their usual living, which is farming the land and pursuing business."



Photo: Mia Farrow and son Seamus review drawings made by children in a 'Safe Play Centre' in the Kalma camp for displaced people, near the city of Nyala. UNICEF helped to build the centre. (UNICEF/Shehzad Noorani)
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Vaccination campaign against meningitis planned in West Darfur

An IRIN report today May 17 says a vaccination campaign against meningitis is to be carried out in the Abu Seroj IDP camp in West Darfur after the UN World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed an outbreak of the disease there, health officials said.

"We moved the vaccines from Khartoum to El Geneina [the capital of West Darfur] on Monday and expect to start the vaccinations in two to three days," Gouido Sabatinelli, WHO Representative in Sudan, told IRIN on Tuesday.

"The next few days will be critical," Sonja Nieuwenhuis, senior health manager in West Darfur for the Swiss-based humanitarian organisation Medair, said in a statement.
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UN food agency warns of looming aid shortage

The UN World Food Programme said today May 17 it would soon have to reduce rations to refugees in Africa unless donors came up quickly with the $315 milllion it needed.

It still needs to 'pre-position' food for 200,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad and 60,000 Eritreans in Sudan before the onset of the rainy season in July.

[Note, If 60,000 Eritreans need to be in camps in the Sudan, things must be pretty bad in Eritrea.]

Tags: Darfur Sudan Chad Africa UNICEF

Blogging The Darfur Collection - UK Commission for Africa - Open Source Radio

Warm thanks to Catez in New Zealand at Allthings2all for putting together The Darfur Collection which brings together various bloggers who share a common concern for the people of Sudan, particularly Darfur.

The Darfur Collection was just published a few minutes ago. More on this at a later date. Thank you to Catez for featuring a post from the November archives of Sudan Watch.
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A Postcard from Khartoum

'Every place has a story; it's just that some stories are harder to tell then others. The Sudan is one of those places whose story is really hard to tell,' writes Lachlan Harris in a web magazine article entitled 'A Postcard from Khartoum.'


Photo: Khartoum

Excerpt from A Postcard from Khartoum May 16. 2005:

"It is not just the cuisine that is so limited; the entire country seems to be lacking the basic hallmarks of organisation and investment that are the calling cards of modern life. Outside the capital there are no traffic lights, bridges, signs announcing city names, or indications of directions. In fact, in the North, which is harsh desert country, there are no roads at all between the major towns, with drivers simply pointing their vehicles across the desert towards the next town, while trying to avoid the drifts of soft sand that trap any vehicle unlucky enough to drive into them.

Linking the towns and the capital is a maze of truck, bus, and minibus transport that, even to the locals, is mind-bogglingly chaotic. Transport simply arrives and leaves when it arrives and leaves. If you want to catch this bus, or that truck, then you must wait at a loosely defined meeting point until it arrives, otherwise it will simply leave without you. Cynical about the magnitude of this disorganisation, I was quickly disavowed of this naïve doubt by a two-day wait for a bus in the border town of Whadi Halfa. After this, it took me almost another week to make the 1500 kilometre journey to Khartoum.

As well as heavily limiting where you can travel in the Sudan (nowhere South of Khartoum, or about 50% of the country), the police simply do not let visitors take photos. Even in the remotest of towns, removing your camera from your bag is sure to attract the attention of the police. If you're lucky you're told to put it away, unlucky and you're dragged to the police station for interrogation until you disprove the suspicion you are a foreign spy."
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Map courtesy of Will in Uganda


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UK Commission for Africa

Prime Minister Tony Blair has made Africa one of his top international priorities during 2005 when the UK has Presidency of the G8 says Downing Street May 11, 2005.

In a recent speech he said there was 'no excuse, no defence, no justification' for the plight of the continent.

He set up the Commission for Africa to tackle some of the biggest problems head on. Its report was published in March and will be discussed at the G8 summit in Scotland this July.


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Open Source. It'll be a radio show. May 30, 2005

Here is a don't miss, must-do: listen to Open Source's pilot on podcasting and bloggers without borders. Hear phone interviews and discussions with Rebecca and Ethan of Global Voices, and several other bloggers, hosted by smooth (and thankfully not-so-fast) talking American Christopher Lydon at Harvad's Berkman.

Historic stuff. Keep it for your archives.



See Ethan's follow-up post On hold with Chris Lydon.


Photo: Christopher Lydon At Creative Commons Anniversary 2003 (Courtesy Joi Ito/Jonas M Luster December 15, 2003)

Note also GlobalCoordinate.com Geo-Community. Click on the map to zoom in. You can add your own comments, stories, or photos at any location.
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Update May 17, 2005

THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC RADIO
IN THE AGE OF PODCASTING:
Anybody can create their own public radio online

Note Rebecca MacKinnon's post linking to a live webcast from Harvard's Berkman Center today, May 17, 2005.

Jake Shapiro of the Public Radio Exchange will talk about the future of public radio in the age of podcasting, which enables anybody to create their own public radio online.

This is history in the making. Keep it for your archives.

Tags: Podcasting Radio Audioblogging MacKinnon Shapiro Berkman Harvard Zuckermann Blair Darfur Sudan Africa

Media fast for Mojtaba

Excerpt from a post at Committee to Protect Bloggers Thursday, May 19, 2005:

The CPB is asking bloggers and other concerned people to observe next Thursday, May 26 as a Media Fast for Mojtaba.

Mojtaba Saminejad, a blogger from Iran, has declared a hunger strike. He is being held at Tehran's Gohar Dashat prison, which has a reputation for mistreatment of detainees. He is being held in the general population, the overwhelming majority of which are common criminals.

Mojtaba was arrested for reporting the earlier arrest of three of his fellow Iranian bloggers. (Iran has arrested over 20 bloggers over the last year.) Iranian bloggers who have been released have reported being the victims of torture.

Read full story at Committee to Protect Bloggers: MEDIA FAST FOR MOJTABA.

[Note: this post was published here on May 19 and has moved to here so that bloggers from Iran can see the above item about podcasting]

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

Aid to Sudan depends on peace in Darfur says EU

The European Union parliament has resolved to bypass the Sudanese government with its financial aid until significant progress to return peace to Darfur has been achieved.

The EU recently decided to release E450 million for Sudan after the signing of a peace agreement between the government and the southern rebels that ended 22 years of conflict on 9 January.

The parliament, however, said the aid intended for Sudan should be granted gradually and must be managed as much as possible by humanitarian organisations operating in the country.

The Sudanese government should not benefit from it until it ends any form of violence in Darfur and accepts to cooperate with the ICC on the abuses that have taken place in the western region, the parliament said.

The European deputies also denounced the arrrest of two Sudanese human rights organisation officials. - via PANA Brussels, Belgium May 14, 2005


Photo: Mudawi Adam

Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam was arrested on Sunday and charged with photographing military buildings and with crimes against Sudan. He remains in police custody.

See SOAT alert May 14, 2005 "Sudanese rights activist Mudawi Ibrahim facing Death Penalty."
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EU president to meet with head of AU to discuss Darfur

On Tuesday, May 17 the President of the European Union, Jose Manuel Barroso, will meet with the head of the African Union to discuss the EUs role in managing the Darfur crisis.

Note, an African Union team has arrived in Khartoum to verify the positions of government troops and rebels in Darfur, an AU spokesman in Sudan said.

The team held talks with the head of the AU mission in Sudan (AMIS), Baba Gana Kingibe, and is due to travel to Darfur on Monday to start on the verification mission. The team is led by the chairman of the joint ceasefire committee, General Mahamet Ali.
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Six-way Libya summit to discuss Darfur crisis

On Monday, May 16 a six-way African summit will be held in the Libyan capital Tripoli to probe means of solving the Darfur crisis.

The summit will be attended by leaders from Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Chad, Gabon and Eritrea.

Sudanese Foreign Minister said Saturday that the aim of the conference was to "set the stage for reaching a quick solution to the Darfur crisis."

The summit will discuss consequences of a UN Security Council resolution calling for war crime suspects in Darfur to be tried before the International Criminal Court. The Sudanese government rejected the resolution as infringing on its sovereignty.

As a leading mediator of the Darfur issue, Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa was also invited to attend the summit.

In statements to the press before heading for Libya, Moussa said that the league's participation in the summit will be the first for the pan-Arab body at such a level, though not the first time for the league to attend meetings on Darfur.

Full Report via Xinhua Cairo, May 15, 2005.

Note, Libyan leader Col Ghaddafi has invited Darfur's two main rebel groups SLM and JEM to participate in the talks. But an AFP report May 15 says they are staying away. [That's OK, Col Gaddafi is handling their interests]
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Eritrean president leaves for Libya to participate in Darfur summit

President Isaias Afwerki left for Libya Sunday morning upon an invitation extended to him by the Libyan leader Col Gaddafi to participate in the Darfur summit.


Photo: Eritrean President Afwerki
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US to help AU in Darfur, but opposes tougher action against Sudan

The Bush administration has offered Air Force transport planes and crews to airlift thousands of additional African peacekeeping troops into Darfur this summer, State Department officials say.

The airlift proposal is part of a larger effort, including at least $50 million in U.S. aid and offers of equipment and military advisors from other members of NATO, to help African countries more effectively enforce an unstable cease-fire in Darfur, the officials said in recent days.

Full Report LA Times May 12, 2005.
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Do something ... But what?

The new AU deployment won't stop the genocide in Darfur. But what other options are there? See must-read by Bradford Plumer, assistant editor of the Mother Jones website, May 11, 2005.
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German military observers fail to get visas for Sudan

Deployment of German military observers to southern Sudan may be delayed. So far, the Sudanese government has issued entry visas to hardly any of the soldiers who are supposed to help with monitoring the peace agreement in the African country as of mid-May.

According to the German news magazine Der Spiegel, the reason for the delay is occasionally seen in the pressure exerted by German diplomacy.

Germany had pilloried the human rights violations in the crisis region of Darfur early and contributed to making the brutal civil war an issue in the UN Security Council, which adopted sanctions.

The UN in New York has now noticed that other Western members of the UN mission have not received the entry visas necessary for southern Sudan, either.

This makes it difficult for the UN to station 10,000 soldiers in Africa's largest country as soon as possible.

One of a total of some 50 German soldiers has meanwhile arrived in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, another four are in Nairobi, Kenya, for preparations. - BBC via Sudan Tribune Berlin, Germany, May 15, 2005.
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Kofi Annan describes what happened at Khor Abeche

Note neat monthly report to UN Security Council by the Secretary-General 10 May, 2005. It explains about the recent attack on Khor Abeche.

Mr Annan says in April, the number of conflict-affected persons rose to 2.45 million, of whom 1.86 million are internally displaced. Extracts:

Despite existing agreements on unimpeded access for humanitarian workers, non-governmental organizations continued to be harassed by the local authorities, particularly in Southern Darfur. In Northern Darfur there were repeated incidents of harassment of humanitarian staff, including some who were temporarily detained by SLA.

The World Health Organization is preparing for the second retrospective mortality survey of conflict-affected persons in Darfur. The survey will be conducted in May, and the results are expected to be available in June.

In Saraf Omra, Northern Darfur, a blanket meningitis vaccination campaign covered approximately 80 per cent of the targeted population in response to the outbreak detected in Northern Darfur in March 2005.

Local government is contravening the letter and the spirit of the agreements on voluntary return, for example by offering incentives to internally displaced persons to return or relocate.
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Protesters urge more British action on Darfur crisis

In London, Survivors of the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide and the war in Bosnia joined a protest on Sunday calling for Britain to help stop violence in Darfur.

About 200 demonstrators held a rally near the gates of Downing Street, where Prime Minister Tony Blair lives. Some protesters unloaded a coffin symbolising the victims of unrest in Darfur from a hearse.

Full Report AP May 15, 2005.


Photo: Protesters and refugees from Darfur, Sudan lay in the street to symbolize the dead outside 10 Downing Street in central London, Monday May 2, 2005 (AP).
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Darfur Peace and Development Organization

Darfur Peace and Development's Board of Directors includes Dr. Eric Reeves of Smith College.
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Bill Gates donates

Bill Gates has kindly given Lutherans $539,000 for Sudan relief work, reports Religion Journal May 9, 2005.

U.N. WFP: Walk the World June 12 - Play free video game

Take the first step right now. Click here to feed one child for one day, then see the Walk the World events near you.

For every person who clicks above, TNT Global Express, Logistics & Mail will sponsor the cost of feeding one child for one day through the United Nations World Food Programme's Global School Feeding campaign.

Note, their blog says, as of 21:00 GMT today, 2345 children will be fed for a day through visitors clicking into the site.
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Fight Hunger: find a walk near you

"Fight Hunger: Walk the World" is a global annual event to raise the awareness and the funds needed to help end child hunger.

Last year, 40,000 people walked on 20 June in over 70 countries, and raised enough money to fund school meals for over 30,000 school children in developing countries.

Join the U.N. World Food Programme on Sunday June 12, 2005 as they 'walk the world' in 24 hours and across 24 time zones.

Visit www.fighthunger.org to find a walk near you - or start one.

Right now, there are 213 "Fight Hunger: Walk the World" events in 71 countries.

[If I were well enough, I'd participate. I used to be a rambler and have many fond memories of great walks along the south west coast of England. If anybody goes on a walk June 12, as a result of reading this post, please let me know and I will write about it here. It would make me feel like I'd virtually participated.]
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WFP launches "Food Force" - the first humanitarian video game

WFP unveils a children's video game with a difference - teaching kids how to get food fast to the site of a humanitarian crisis.



Rome, 4 May 2005 - Food Force, the free educational video game launched by WFP last month, continues to spark strong demand and positive feedback from both children and teachers alike.

The game, which aims to teach kids about the issue of global hunger, has already been downloaded 750,000 times, and players around the world have been posting their comments at www.food-force.com



Food Force video game using PC or Mac, is available as a free internet download from www.food-force.com

Tags: Darfur Sudan Chad Africa UN