Category: Darfur

Posted on

Weapons enter Darfur camps

The UN is now reporting that the refugee camps in Darfur are seeing an influx of weapons.

Mr Holmes told the BBC that some of the 1.2 million refugees are impatient, politicised, and armed.

He said having thousands of disaffected men cooped up in camps in which weapons were available, was dangerous.

He believes the situation in the camps is bound to lead to clashes, and reflects the fact that there is no peace settlement in place for Darfur.

With Sudanese forces circling the camps the situation is potentially explosive.

Ironically, this is a rather expected outcome as the same thing happened in the refugee camps following Rwanda. Even though Holmes is speculating on outbreaks of violence between the refugees and Sudanese forces (a likely possibility), he failed to mention the similarly probable outcome of armed refugees splitting into rival gangs.

Posted on

Systematic rape continues in Darfur

A new report by the United Nations Office for Human Rights implicates Sudanese military forces and allied militia groups (Janjaweed) in the capture and rape of fifty women. According to the latest release, the women were taken to a government facility where they were held for a month and repeatedly abused.

Women in Darfur are also at risk of sexual violence outside the context of large attacks. Women risk being raped if they leave their camp for internally displaced people to search for firewood. In some areas, the current African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) has provided “firewood patrols” to accompany groups of women once or twice a week as they gather firewood. But these patrols have often been ineffective due to poor organization, lack of resources, and lack of communication with the people who benefit from the patrols.

As Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, pointed out, the upcoming UN/AU peacekeepers need the authority to intervene in such situations.

Posted on

UN/AU general fingered for Rwandan genocide

The general who is slated to lead the joint UN/AU peacekeeping forces in Sudan has recently come under scrutiny for his alleged involvement in the Rwandan genocide. General Karenzi Karake was approved by the African Union to become the deputy commander of the African forces.

A Belgium-based Rwandan exile group has accused General Karake of supervising the killings of civilians during the genocide in Rwanda and the DR Congo.

“We are taking the allegations very seriously and we have invited the groups to forward them so that we can do an independent background check,” Mr Sorokobi told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.

Rwanda’s Foreign Ministry has dismissed the claims as a mere fabrication and an attempt to tarnish Rwanda’s image.

“Major-General Karake is a well-trained and experienced senior officer who has ably served in various senior command staff roles in the Rwanda Defence Forces and rightly deserves the post,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the government of Khartoum is claiming that this is a smear campaign to give the participating members of the African Union a black eye. According to a spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, Karake has yet to be placed under contract with the peacekeeping forces.

Posted on

Only African troops in Darfur

No more than two weeks has passed since the United Nations passed Security Council resolution 1769 – authorizing a hybrid peacekeeping force in Sudan – and Khartoum is already dancing its way around the stipulations agreed to by the attending members. After a meeting with the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, it was announced that the 26,000 hybrid UN-African Union troops would be drawn entirely from African countries.

So is Mr Konare’s statement a challenge to the authority of the UN?

Those close to the African Union argue it is not.

On the question of command for the mission, they point out that the hybrid force commander, Martin Agwai, was appointed by the African Union.

And they suggest that although Africa could easily provide 20,000 troops, it does not have the ability to pay the $2 billion a year price tag, or airlift them into position in Darfur.

So the idea that this will be a totally African force should be seen as an aspiration.

Rather, Mr Konare’s statement should be seen as an attempt to re-assert Africa’s authority on the continent and to re-assure the Sudanese leadership that they will not be over-run by foreign troops.

Even if the meeting with Konare wasn’t meant as a stall tactic on the part of Khartoum, it is obviously creating a number of wrinkled brows in the international community. Curiously, the African Union forces that have been on the ground in Darfur have not only encountered opposition, but have routinely faced problems of funding.

Not surprisingly, even though the UN Security Council has passed a resolution to create a hybrid force, it has yet to fund the operation.

Posted on

Sand and Sorrow

According to Variety, George Clooney is set to narrate (and executive produce) the HBO documentary Sand and Sorrow. The film is the product of Paul Freedman, who follows Nicholas Kristof, John Prendergast, and Samantha Power through the region as they attempt to raise awareness of what’s happening in Sudan.

“Sand and Sorrow” follows the history of the strife in Sudan’s Darfur region, where the Arab-controlled government has killed and displaced much of the indigenous African population. It also looks at the international community’s slow reaction to the crisis.

The documentary is slated to air in December and will also include interviews with Elie Wiesel, Barak Obama, Sam Brownback, Minni Minawi.