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?
U.N. Presses for Peace in Darfur
27 May LA Times - U.N. Presses for Peace in Darfur by Maggie Farley.
Quote:
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has put his personal diplomatic clout on the line to end the bloodshed in Darfur, demanding a cease-fire and fresh peace talks in a letter to Sudan's president, U.S. and Sudanese diplomats said Saturday.
Ban has asked the Security Council to hold off on sanctions to give President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir time to respond to an all-out diplomatic drive outlined for the first time in the confidential letter, which was delivered Friday.
The letter is also meant to signal a last chance for Bashir to stop attacks by Arab militias widely believed to be supported by the government. If Sudan continues to stall or backtrack on agreements, diplomats here say, even its strongest allies in the Security Council will have little excuse to block strong sanctions...
Satellites to Watch for Darfur Violence
Satellites to Watch for Darfur Violence
Quote:
The new Amnesty International Web site,
http://www.eyesondarfur.org , was launched Wednesday in conjunction with a conference at the University of California, Berkeley.
"We're hoping that by shining a light that we will deter the abuse from ever happening," said Ariela Blatter, director of the Crisis Prevention and Response Center for Amnesty International USA.
Satellite images have been used before to document destruction in Darfur and elsewhere. But the latest project offers clearer, more up-to-date images, allowing experts to better track developments, Blatter said.
U.S. relies on Sudan despite condemning it
U.S. relies on Sudan despite condemning it. Greg Miller and Josh Meyer, LATIMES. 11 June.
Quote:
Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq, an example of how the U.S. has continued to cooperate with the Sudanese regime even while condemning its suspected role in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur.
President Bush has denounced the killings in Sudan's western region as genocide and has imposed sanctions on the government in Khartoum. But some critics say the administration has soft-pedaled the sanctions to preserve its extensive intelligence collaboration with Sudan.
The relationship underscores the complex realities of the post-Sept. 11 world, in which the United States has relied heavily on intelligence and military cooperation from countries, including Sudan and Uzbekistan, that are considered pariah states for their records on human rights.
"Intelligence cooperation takes place for a whole lot of reasons," said a U.S. intelligence official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing intelligence assessments. "It's not always between people who love each other deeply."
Sudan has become increasingly valuable to the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks because the Sunni Arab nation is a crossroads for Islamic militants making their way to Iraq and Pakistan.
That steady flow of foreign fighters has provided cover for Sudan's Mukhabarat intelligence service to insert spies into Iraq, officials said ...
Sudan OKs Peacekeepers for Darfur
12 June LA Times - Sudan OKs Peacekeepers for Darfur by Maggie Farley.
Quote:
Sudan on Tuesday accepted a combined United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force of up to 23,000 troops and police to stabilize to the war-torn Darfur region.
But U.N. diplomats, cautious after months of waffling by the regime, were not ready to celebrate a breakthrough.
The agreement came before a Security Council mission to Khartoum on Saturday to press for an end to the government-stoked conflict in Darfur. At the end of a two-day summit of Sudanese, U.N. and African Union officials in Ethiopia, Sudan also agreed Tuesday on the need for an immediate cease-fire and peace talks with rebel groups to end four years of fighting.
Sudan had initially agreed to the joint force in November, but it has backtracked and added conditions in the months since...
In Sudan, Help Comes From Above
6 July NY Times commentary - In Sudan, Help Comes From Above by Julie Flint.
Quote:
The one bright light in the dismal international response to the slaughter and starvation in Sudan’s Darfur region has been a humanitarian effort that has kept more than two million displaced people alive. In the fifth year of the war, mortality levels among Darfurians reached by relief are marginally better than they were before the war and lower than in the capital, Khartoum. In South Sudan, where conflict is stilled, children have higher death rates and lower school enrollment.
This is a formidable achievement, better than in any comparable war zone in Africa. Credit the likes of Oxfam, Mercy Corps and Doctors Without Borders, and their 13,000-strong army of relief workers — 90 percent of them Sudanese.
Yet these successes will be lost if Democratic presidential candidates get their wish: a no-flight zone that is militarily enforced over Darfur. The idea, supported by Senator Hillary Clinton and others, is that this would pressure the Sudan government into allowing the immediate deployment of a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force. “If they fly into it, we will shoot down their planes,” Mrs. Clinton said last week at a Democratic presidential debate. “It is the only way to get their attention.”
Aid agencies are quietly appalled by the prospect of a no-flight zone. They believe Khartoum would respond by grounding humanitarian aircraft and, at worst, by forcing aid agencies to leave. Even if Khartoum didn’t ground flights, the United Nations most likely would, for fear of sending its planes into a potential combat zone. Without humanitarian air access, Darfurians would soon suffer lethal health and food crises...
Janjaweed and Erstwhile Enemies
Why you have to love, Sudan
From a safe distance....
Quote:
Darfur conflict takes unexpected turn
NERTITI, Sudan — As far as Osman Ahmed could tell, the clashes that forced his family out of their home and into a dismal refugee camp last month were no different from the attacks that have devastated Darfur for four years and counting.
"The village was totally burned and looted. It was the janjaweed," said Ahmed, a tired-looking man in a long white gown, invoking the name of the government-sponsored Arab militias responsible for most of the recent carnage in western Sudan.
But Ahmed, who fled immediately with his family to safety in Nertiti, about seven miles away, wasn't around to see what happened the following day. Darfur rebels retaliated by striking a nearby government security station, and their allies in the attack were also Arab janjaweed.
Analysis: Africa's Darfur bombshell
13 August - By Martin Plaut, BBC Africa analyst
"And so far these UN troops have caused no difficulties for the Sudanese government."
Really ? Now this begs the question...who's nominally in charge whilst the rest beg, borrow and steal :D
Quote:
The chairman of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, dropped something of a bombshell after holding talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
Speaking to the media, he insisted that the 26,000-strong hybrid United Nations-African Union force would be drawn entirely from Africa, and that it would be under African command.
The initial response to the statement was one of surprise.
The Americans, among others, had argued that Africa does not have enough trained soldiers to make up a credible and effective force.
The Sudanese are fearful that some of their number might be arrested by UN forces, under a sealed warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, for crimes allegedly committed in Darfur.
African troops, led by an African commander, might be prevailed on not to carry out this exercise.
But in some ways the whole rumpus is a little puzzling.
The UN already has 10,108 total uniformed personnel, including 8,824 troops, 591 military observers, and 693 police patrolling South Sudan, as part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement reached between the authorities in Khartoum and rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in January 2005.
More at the link
In Nubia, fears of another Darfur
In Nubia, fears of another Darfur - LATIMES, 31 Aug.
Quote:
The tranquil Nubian villages along this Nile River stretch are best known for the brightly painted gates that adorn many of the simple mud-brick homes. With geometric shapes and hieroglyphic-like pictures, the oversized gates hark back to the stone-carved doorways the villagers' ancestors once built on pyramids that rivaled Egypt's.
These days, however, the elaborate entryways are shadowed by black flags. Government soldiers patrol once-quiet dirt streets, occasionally drawing stones from angry youths. Protest graffiti mar the walls, including one scrawling of an AK-47 with the simple caption: "Darfur 2."
First, southern Sudan erupted in a 20-year civil war, followed by the east and, most recently, the western region of Darfur. Now many fear that Sudan's northern territory of Nubia will be the next to explode over the fight for resources and all-too-familiar accusations of "ethnic cleansing" and complaints of marginalization by an Arab-dominated government ...
time to rethink the UN military sourcing
I hate to say this but, the effectiveness of UN PK forces has been very suspect for a long time. I hate to say this becuase it is often seen as a slam against non-western militaries ability and professionalism. It is also seen as elitist. That said here goes, the idea of a stand alone UN military force is written into the UN Charter, the capacity fielding this force exists yet it is not politically viable. Too many questions on command and control, loyalty etc.
Stand by for controversy:
What the UN should do is higher Blackwater or another firm, combination of firms, to provide professional uniformed military forces. The quality would go up, the quantity could be a problem but that is a $ thing. But the money is there note--The amount of money spent to higher say Bangladeshi troops is huge, and then you have to pay extra to arm and equip them. By resorting to PMC's the UN could build effective first rate forces, that are governed by the UN (new international SOFA style and UCMJ style rules would have to be created) commanded by the UN and sanctioned by the UN. Note Blackwater ahs stated they could outfit a battalion fairly easily. This could at least provide a professional QRF. The existance of a quality QRF could stiffen the resolve of the other forces.
AU peacekeepers killed by attacking rebels-CNN 30 Sept 07
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa....ap/index.html
Quote:
DURAIJ, Sudan (AP) -- A large force of rebels stormed an African Union peacekeeping base in Darfur, killing at least a dozen soldiers and wounding several others in the biggest attack on the mission so far, the AU said Sunday.
More than 50 AU peacekeepers and support personnel are missing in action since the attack on the base in northern Darfur just after sunset on Saturday.
"This is the heaviest loss of life and the biggest attack on the African Union mission," said AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni, who could not confirm the casualty figures because the fighting was ongoing.
More at the link, but does anyone have an easily referenced info source for this snippet?
Quote:
The underfunded force has been unable to stem the fighting in the war torn western region and will soon be merged into a much more powerful hybrid U.N. force.
The first units of the 26,000-strong force will be deployed in October and it is expected to assume responsibility for the area on December 31.
peacekeeping force weakness exploited
From a survey of the open source reports it would appear 150 peacekeepers, basically mech-motorized infantry company, were attacked by about 1000 irregular troops who weilded mortars, and heavy machine guns. Apparently the peackeepers held out for several hours until their ammunition ran out. They had to rely on rescue by the Sudanese Army.
Once again the UN/AU shows its weakness. no air support-no ready action QRF, unless you consider the sudanese army-the guys you are partially there to police. An airstrike or two would have most likely broken the attack. Oh well. Also note some of the African nations who promised troops are starting to back out. I can't blame them if they feel they are sending troops into hamrs way without the proper support.
