Sudan Watch (to July 2012)
Moderators Note: This thread was a catch all thread for posts on the Sudan, there is a separate thread on 'South Sudan - stabilisation' and both contain a variety of subjects. On 6th July 2012 this thread was closed after a new catch all thread for Sudan 2012 was opened:
http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=16026
(ends)
14 Jan. Reuters - U.N. Envoy Cites Darfur Failure; Wants 20,000 Troops.
Quote:
Attempts to bring peace to Sudan's Darfur region have failed and a U.N. peacekeeping force of 12,000 to 20,000 troops is needed to stop the killings and rape, the top U.N. official in Sudan said.
Jan Pronk gave his most pessimistic assessment yet to the U.N. Security Council on Friday. He said marauding Arab militia were succeeding in their ethnic cleansing campaign, erasing village after village.
"Looking back at three years of killings and cleansing in Darfur we must admit that our peace strategy so far has failed," Pronk said. "All we did was picking up the pieces and muddling through, doing too little too late."
"At least once a month groups of 500 to 1000 militia on camel and horseback attack villages, killing dozens of people and terrorizing the others who flee away," Pronk said.
The United Nations is contemplating a peacekeeping force in Darfur, where the African Union has fielded a force of 7,000 with a limited mandate and scarce funds. But U.N. peacekeeping officials have not planned for the high numbers of troops Pronk suggested...
Annan Pushes Bush on U.S. Troops for U.N. Darfur Force
9 Feb Reuters - Annan Pushes Bush on U.S. Troops for U.N. Darfur Force.
Quote:
The United States should contribute troops and equipment to a planned new U.N. force designed to stop the killings and rape in Sudan's Darfur region, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday.
Annan said he would press President George W. Bush on the issue when the two meet on Monday in Washington, along with expected discussions on Iran, Iraq and the controversy over cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad.
Underfinanced African Union troops are now the only bulwark in Sudan against marauding militia and rebels, with some 7,000 monitors and soldiers on the ground. The U.N. Security Council this week authorized Annan to draw up contingency plans for U.N. peacekeepers to go into Darfur...
WFP: Lack of Security Threatens Darfur Relief Operation
9 Feb Voice of America - WFP: Lack of Security Threatens Darfur Relief Operation.
Quote:
The World Food Program warns increasing insecurity in Sudan's conflict-ridden province of Darfur is jeopardizing its operations. The U.N. agency says attacks on food convoys and drivers are hampering efforts to get crucial supplies to thousands of needy people.
The World Food Program says during the past two or three weeks, 20 trucks were attacked in northern and southern Darfur. WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume says this particularly dangerous area is under rebel control. She says it is unclear whether bandits or members of the Sudan Liberation Army are behind the attacks...
Bush Calls For More Muscle In Darfur
18 Feb Washington Post - Bush Calls For More Muscle In Darfur .
Quote:
President Bush on Friday called for doubling the number of international troops in the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan and a bigger role for NATO in the peacekeeping effort.
Bush has concluded that peace talks will not halt the violence that has left tens of thousands dead and more than 2 million homeless in Darfur and that a more muscular military response is required, administration officials said.
After private talks with world leaders, including U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Bush decided to call for an additional 7,000 or more troops to be placed under U.N. command, along with the 7,000 African Union troops already there, because such an expansion would be the quickest way to intervene in the bloody conflict, the officials said. But many details of the policy shift need to be worked out, including how many U.S. troops would be part of the beefed-up international peacekeeping effort. Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman, said it is "premature to speculate" on potential increases in U.S. troops...
NATO Considering Putting Troops in Darfur
11 June Voice of America - NATO Considering Putting Troops with African Units in Darfur by Al Pessin.
Quote:
Officials at NATO headquarters, and in NATO capitals across Europe and North America, are considering a request from the African Union to put western trainers into African military units that are trying to establish security in Sudan's Darfur region.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de hoop Scheffer said the request to expand NATO's involvement in Darfur arrived in time to be discussed Thursday during the NATO defense ministers meeting.
"That is a positive reaction to what has been discussed in the North Atlantic Council, and we are now moving on with this." Scheffer says.
The head of NATO's Strategic Direction Center, British Colonel David Short is to put together a detailed mission plan, if NATO leaders approve the African request.
"To me, this latest letter from the African Union is beginning to open a new chapter, if you like, in terms of NATO's engagement," Short says.
Colonel Short says the A.U. request asks NATO to continue its current support for the Union's mission in Darfur - flying troops in and out of the region, helping with training and providing a liaison officer at the mission headquarters. But he says it also includes new requests, including the one involving NATO trainers working in Darfur in the A.U. units that have been deployed.
"Could you look at, further, these sort of 'on the job' capacity building activities? By this, we are talking, potentially, about assisting units on the ground," Short says. "But, I would hasten to say that is very much something which needs further discussion and reconnaissance."
Colonel Short says the A.U. request also asks NATO to expand its training of senior African officers, and to help establish a system for certifying that military units from the various countries are fully qualified to participate in the organization's military activities.
No NATO official can say whether or when the alliance might expand its Darfur mission, as requested. But Colonel Short says the groundwork has been laid for the political decision and the potential military deployments.
"I would not be held to a specific length of time, but because NATO and the North Atlantic Council have been warmed up to these as potential options - because, clearly, we have always tried to forward plan and anticipate what might come in - we have prepared work that can be launched very quickly," Short says.
Years of violence involving militia groups and attacks on civilians have killed hundreds of thousands of people. The U.S. government and others have labeled it genocide. A peace accord reached last month has contributed to an increase in violence, as all groups have not accepted it.
The U.N. Security Council has agreed to take over the African Union military effort in Darfur, but Sudan's government has not accepted the plan. A local leader told VOA on Friday, after meeting with a UN delegation, that the people will not accept troops from outside of Africa. A U.N. force could include both African and non-African troops, including possibly some from NATO countries.
But at NATO military headquarters, Colonel Short says there is no plan for the alliance to organize forces to go to Darfur in large numbers to confront the militias themselves.
He says training teams that may work with the deployed African forces would be small, and the African Union Mission in Sudan, known as AMIS, would still be responsible for trying to restore order in the region.
"The key principle for the AMIS mission is that the Africans are looking for African solutions for African problems. They must remain in the lead. And NATO, who are just one of the partners, are there in support," Short says.
Colonel Short and other officials say NATO will have to ask member nations to provide troops and equipment for the additional Darfur missions. NATO has a new Reaction Force standing by to respond to emergencies, but officials say the training and other services being requested by the African Union are not the type of mission the Force was created to handle.
A disconcerting blurb in the blog
It seems there was an attack at a large refugee camp near the middle of last month, and it caused an exodus of aid workers at a critical time, with only Red Cross left to deal with the 130,000 souls dwelling there.
I found more on aidworkers.net: http://www.aidworkers.net/?q=node/671
Aid groups pull out of Darfur refugee camp after rape
According to an article in the Independent, UK on 22 January 2007 by Alex Duval Smith in Paris:
Aid groups have suspended operations in Darfur and may pull out of the Sudanese province after a French relief worker was raped, another sexually assaulted and an Oxfam employee was severely beaten at the world's largest refugee camp.
The attack took place on 18 December at Gereida refugee camp, South Darfur, and marks the first time a Western aid worker has been the target of rape - a weapon of war in Darfur, where 3.5 million people depend on aid. "We have suspended our operations and we may not go back," said Thomas Gonnet, the director of operations for Action Contre La Faim (ACF), whose colleague was raped and another was molested.
Is there anyone on the SWC who has primary source knowledge of the current conditions in the Sudan?