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Darfur: A Genocide We Can Stop

Sudan News Archive

2006

27 August 2006
Run for Darfur: RUN FOR SUDAN TO RAISE $3 MILLION IN AID MONEY!!! Starting Sunday of August 20 of 2006 to Saturday of September 2, 2006, Ryan Gilbert and Thomas Whalen, two college students, will trek across New England to raise money for Sudan, particularly the Darfur region that has experienced the greatest amount of genocide in the last couple of years. The 300 Mile Run/March will begin in Lowell, MA and end in New York City. They will make many stops along the way to speak and let others know about what's happening in Sudan. People who wish to join are welcome. About 21 miles a day will be covered and there will be a combination of running and walking. At the finale in Times Square they will meet with Simon Deng, a former Sudanese slave who now is a political icon for all of Sudan and has spoken at United Nation summits. Simon has already done his own 300 March which can be viewed at sudanwalk.iabolish.com. You won't miss Ryan; he'll be running (and walking) with an American flag high in the air showing we as Americans will not tolerate genocide in our world.
The goal of this event is to raise awareness of the actions of the corrupt Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for not stopping the murders of the non-Arabic African people of Sudan, particularly the state of Darfur which has been a major recent target. We are also raising $3 MILLION TO GIVE AID TO SUDAN'S CHILDREN DYING FROM LACK OF FOOD AND WATER DUE TO THE GENOCIDE! [READ MORE]
cite: runforsudan.com

23 Aug 2006
Darfur sex attacks rise as security deteriorates: Sex attacks on displaced women collecting firewood in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region have surged to 200 a month from just a handful as security deteriorates, an international aid agency said on Wednesday.

Darfuri women are forced to walk several miles into isolated bush from their camp confines to search for fuel, and a peace deal agreed in May between the Khartoum government and a Darfur rebel group has done little to bring security for them. [READ MORE]
cite: alertnet.org

08/23/2006
Can the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation (DDDC) Help Bring Peace to Darfur?: With the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) in a state of peril, the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation is more critical than ever. Many see the broad based, inclusive political dialogue called for in the DPA as the last hope for salvaging the agreement and building peace. With creative leadership and sustained engagement from the international community the enormous challenges facing the Dialogue might be surmounted and at long last the people of Darfur would have a voice in shaping their peace process. ~from a bulletin written jointly by The Initiative for Inclusive Security and Refugees International. [READ MORE]
cite: refugeesinternational.org

14 Aug 2006
SUDAN: Cholera on the rise in Darfur: The number of cases of acute watery diarrhoea has increased noticeably in the past four weeks, with outbreaks reported in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, as well as urban areas, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said. "We're concerned because diarrhoeal diseases are a major killer of children," Edward Carwardine, UNICEF senior communications officer, said. "Forty percent of the collected stool specimens tested positive for cholera - all the more reason to accelerate our response." [READ MORE]
cite: alertnet.org

August 14, 2006
Evading link with Sudan: In response to student activists, and in step with a nationwide trend among college endowments, the University System of Maryland Foundation has pledged to avoid investing in four companies it believes help the government of Sudan commit genocide in the country's Darfur region. [READ MORE]
cite: by Gadi Dechter, baltimoresun.com

13 August 2006
Displaced Darfuris reject peace deal: A growing dispute between several Darfuri factions critical of a months-old peace deal and a leading rebel leader is threatening to explode into a new level of violence and prevent the repatriation of refugees to the impoverished western region of Sudan. . . [Bokhit Dabo, a former mayor in Darfur and a refugee leader in Chad’s Ouri Cassoni camp], told Aljazeera.net that a key demand - also echoed by Minawi and his supporters - is for the Janjaweed to be disarmed. [READ MORE]
cite: by Shane Bauer in Chad, aljazeera.net

Aug 10, 2006
African Darfur force has no funds beyond October: The African Union does not have enough money to pay the 7,000 troops monitoring a shaky truce in Darfur beyond October, the pan-African body said on Thursday. Sudan has categorically rejected a U.N. takeover of the AU mission which is struggling to end the violence that has only increased since a peace agreement was signed between the government and one rebel faction in May. U.N. officials said without additional funding, almost 3.6 million Darfuris could see a period where troops were withdrawn or unable to work to deter rape, murder and pillage in Sudan's remote west... Khartoum likens a U.N. takeover of the force to a Western invasion, saying it would attract Jihadi militants and create an Iraq-like quagmire. [READ MORE]
cite: By Opheera McDoom, Reuters

10 August 2006
Remember Darfur: Deaths of aid workers show need for security in SudanL Editorial Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: Chris Smith and Frank Wolf, two Republican congressmen, have called on President Bush to appoint a special envoy to Sudan. He should do that and more. World leaders have shamefully stood by since this region exploded into violence in 2003. Ending the suffering in Darfur ought to be an American and a global priority. [READ MORE]
cite: democratandchronicle.com

Aug 10, 2006
UN in Darfur facing increased violence: More aid workers in Darfur, the troubled Sudanese region, have been killed in the past month than in the previous three years of conflict there, the UN said on Tuesday. [READ MORE]
cite: taipeitimes.com

7 Aug 2006
SUDAN: Former Darfur rebel leader named presidential assistant: The leader of the former rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) in the war-torn region of Darfur, Minni Minnawi, was sworn in as special assistant to Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir in Khartoum on Monday, despite a political row over the weekend. Minnawi is the leader of the largest of three main rebel groups in Darfur and the only one that signed the 5 May peace deal with the Sudanese government. [READ MORE]
cite: irinnews.org

Aug. 07, 2006
SECOND TAKE - New York Times: A STRONG United Nations (UN) force is needed to halt the genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region. If it is not sent soon, it may be too late for many thousands of potential victims. The immediate cause of the delay is the refusal by Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, to agree to a UN force, which he preposterously claims would attempt to recolonise his African nation. He is able to get away with this largely because China, a permanent member of the security council, continues to protect him with the threat of using its veto. [READ MORE]
cite: businessday.co.za

Aug. 07, 2006
Roots of terror: Modern terrorism began in Iran when the ayatollah took 52 hostages from the American Embassy in 1979. The threat of execution lasted more than 400 days. Since then, terrorists have had carte blanche: the bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, where 241 serviceman were killed; the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia; the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and of the USS Cole; and 9/11. What is happening now in the Middle East is just a continuation of the ayatollah's extremism. [READ MORE]
cite: miami.com

5 August 2006
Taiwan breaks diplomatic relations with Chad: Taiwan is breaking off diplomatic relations with the central African country of Chad, the island's Foreign Ministry said Sunday. Lu said China is using its status as a member of the United Nations Security Council and its ability to influence events in neighbouring Sudan to convince Chad to cuts ties to Taiwan. [READ MORE]
cite: cnews.canoe.ca

4 August 2006
Forgotten Again: Darfur Crisis Rages On: Today, it is not uncommon to hear, "Why should I care about what is happening over there?" That there is far too much here, in our own country that needs fixing, our attention, and financial support. "We need to clean up our own backyard," I heard someone recently say. And their concerns are valid, with one exception: "over there" is our backyard and the plight and suffering of any human being, whether one starving child or a million, is everyone's business. [READ MORE]
cite: by Jan Baumgartner, opednews.com

August 04, 2006
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in Darfur: In July 2003, the UN Security Council made its first referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the grounds that the Sudanese government had failed to convict suspects of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the region. Following this referral, the International Commission of Inquiry presented the ICC with a list of 51 suspects, comprising civilians, army and governmental officials. . . But the response to the ICC investigations in Darfur, which began in June 2005, has not been welcomed by the Sudanese government. [READ MORE]
cite: allafrica.com

August 04, 2006
GENOCIDE IN DARFUR: The Arab League's Impotence: Since 1956, Sudan has been a member of the Arab League, and since early 2003, a murderous outbreak of Muslim-against-Muslim violence has gone on unabated in the country's Darfur region while the Arab League has sat by, silent and impotent. [READ MORE]
cite: by Mik Awake, nyinquirer.typepad.com

August 04, 2006
GENOCIDE IN DARFUR: The Failed Darfur Peace Agreement: The Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) has collapsed with shocking rapidity. No facile comments from the UN's Pronk, US officials, or other international actors who pushed through this deeply flawed agreement can change the brutal realities on the ground, and the rapid deterioration in security. The African Union may have been funded through October 1, 2006---perhaps even beyond---but it has lost all credibility with the people of Darfur. It simply cannot function meaningfully in providing security for civilians or humanitarians. [READ MORE]
cite: by Eric Reeves, nyinquirer.typepad.com

08/04/06
Darfur: Inadequate International Aid Threatened by Renewed Violence: The situation is worsening in Darfur, the western Sudan region where a conflict began in 2003. Renewed violence has led to reduced assistance to people in the area. Dr. Denis Lemasson, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) program director, has just returned from Sudan with a disturbing report. [READ MORE]
cite: doctorswithoutborders.org

3 Aug 2006
Darfur rebels deny torture accusations: Darfur rebels denied accusations of a human rights group that they had killed and tortured opponents to a May peace accord which ended a three-year-old war that killed tens of thousands of people. Amnesty International issued a statement this week accusing the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction led by Minni Arcua Minnawi of killing, raping civilians in July in Korma town in North Darfur who were against the peace deal. [READ MORE]
cite: news.scotsman.com

Aug. 3 2006
Darfur insecurity cutting off aid efforts: A leading humanitarian agency Wednesday called for warring parties to respect the provision of medical care to people in western Sudan's Darfur region. Increased insecurity in recent weeks has forced Médecins Sans Frontières, an independent international medical relief organization, to suspend its medical assistance activities, leaving thousands of patients untreated each day. MSF field workers have been attacked on at least four separate occasions since July 14. Vehicles, including ambulances, have been shot at and staff were beaten and robbed. [READ MORE]
cite: upi.com

August 03, 2006
GENOCIDE IN DARFUR: The Case of Minni Minnawi: In June of 2005, Robert Zoellick, then Deputy Secretary of State, headed for Sudan carrying personal letters signed by President George W. Bush. They were intended for the signers of the Darfur Peace Agreement, and they guaranteed, in return for a cease-fire, an audience in the White House . . . . only one rebel leader, of the SLM, signed and in turn had the claim on Bush's promise. That man was Minni Minnawi. Since signing the agreement, Minnawi has been instrumental in the continuing violence in Darfur, [READ MORE]
cite: by Andrew Bast, nyinquirer.typepad.com

Aug. 02, 2006
Activists push for divestment from Sudan: The two largest pension funds in Indiana – the teachers’ and the public employees’ retirement funds – each have about 20 percent of their combined portfolio invested in international companies, according to a national advocacy group. Several state and national representatives want to make sure none of that money is invested in the African country of Sudan . . . [READ MORE]
cite: By Nicole Lee, fortwayne.com

2 August 2006
Annan outlines Darfur peace plans: UN chief Kofi Annan has urged the Security Council to reinforce Darfur's African Union (AU) peacekeepers, while pressuring Sudan to accept a UN force. Annan gave three options for the UN, with Sudan's approval, to bring peace. [READ MORE]
cite: news.bbc.co.uk

August 02, 2006
GENOCIDE IN DARFUR: Maps of Scorched Villages and Refugee Camps: From USAID is an excellent map of the Sudan border area with Chad -- wherever you see orange fires are where villages have been burned or completely destroyed. [READ MORE]
cite: nyinquirer.typepad.com

August 02, 2006
GENOCIDE IN DARFUR: A Story Slow to Spread: Rebel groups began slaughtering innocents in the Darfur region of Western Sudan in early 2003, yet the fighting that more than two years later would be deemed genocide took almost as long to make the headlines. [READ MORE]
cite: by Andrew Bast, nyinquirer.typepad.com

August 02, 2006
GENOCIDE IN DARFUR: Why Peacekeeping Forces Come Up Short: The latest news from Darfur is that the truce has been broken and the Washington and African Union-sponsored peace deal is now in jeopardy. Although a genuine cessation of hostilities is the most desirable immediate outcome, this disruption provides an opportunity to rethink the following points: (1) Does the peace deal even addresses Darfur’s root problems? (2) Did the peace deal ever have a chance to succeed, given both its limited aims and the insufficient and non-committal financial and material support provided to the African Union effort? [READ MORE]
cite: by Fred Copley, nyinquirer.typepad.com

August 01, 2006
Oxfam Staffer Killed in Darfur: It is with deep sorrow that Oxfam announces that one of our staff members, Nouraldeen Abdalla Nourein, is believed to have been killed last Friday, 28 July, in West Darfur. Oxfam temporarily closed its office in Saraf Omra at the end of June because Nouraldeen was still missing. While that office remains closed, ... a number of other locations in North Darfur and in South and West Darfur [continue to operate]. [READ MORE]
cite: oxfamamerica.org

July 31, 2006
GENOCIDE IN DARFUR: Intro -- It's Hardly a World Away: This week The Inquirer will deliver on the genocide taking place in Darfur. Mainstream media outlets, namely the nightly news broadcasts, have been shameless in their coverage. Well, let's be honest, they just haven't covered it at all. Luckily, however, journalists like Nicholas Kristof have championed the cause with vivid, horrific and endlessly informative reporting . . . . The cry from the revelations of Nazi death camps in 1945 was "never again!" And today, in another part of a drastically shrunk -- some say flattened -- world, arguments against a more vigorous pursuit of a solution simply sound doltish. [READ MORE]
cite: nyinquirer.typepad.com

July 30, 2006
DARFUR TRUCE BROKEN: The United Nations and the African Union have condemned the Sudanese army and Janjaweed militias for attacking opposition groups in Darfur's Jebel Moon area in violation of a May peace agreement. It is the first confirmed breach of the peace deal by the Sudanese army. [READ MORE]
cite: www9.sbs.com.au

July 29, 2006
Sudan govt forces attack Darfur rebel bases: Sudanese government forces and allied militias attacked bases of a new rebel alliance in Darfur despite a cease-fire in the violent west, officials and rebels said on Saturday. "Yesterday (Friday) all day and until the evening the government of Sudan with the Janjaweed attacked Jabel Moun and KulKul, north of el-Fasher," Abu Bakr Hamid al-Nur, a rebel NRF commander, told Reuters from Darfur on Saturday. [READ MORE]
cite: by Opheera McDoom, today.reuters.com

29 July 2006
Sudan's Bashir reiterates Darfur would be UN troops "graveyard" Khartoum: Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir warned yesterday that Darfur would become a "graveyard" for United Nations forces if they were deployed in the west Sudan region, the state-run SUNA news agency said. [READ MORE]
cite: sudantribune.com

25 July 2006
How the U.S. Can Break the Deadlock on Darfur: The U.S. can and must be the one to break the deadlock on Darfur. The U.S. has unique power and leverage with the government of Sudan that can end the stalemate and advance the goal of a UN peacekeeping mission for Darfur. The U.S. also remains the only government to have publicly acknowledged that what is happening in Darfur constitutes genocide, though it has failed to articulate or pursue a strategy to improve the security situation on the ground. If the U.S. is committed to ending this genocide, it must use its power to protect the people of Darfur and secure the necessary UN peacekeeping force now. ... Africa Action emphasizes that the U.S. is uniquely positioned to bring effective pressure to bear on Khartoum to accept the international community’s demand for a UN mission in Darfur. [READ MORE]
cite: africaaction.org

24 Jul 2006
Darfur: UNHCR extremely concerned about further worsening of security situation: In the past two days, two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also been attacked by armed men in the Djebel Mara area, north of Zalinge. Staff members of one NGO were abducted by militia for several hours on Wednesday before finally being released later in the day. [READ MORE]
cite: alertnet.org

21 July 2006
UN refugee agency "extremely concerned" at rising attacks in Darfur: International organizations have had to suspend activities in camps, United Nations agency spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva just one day after three water workers there were beaten to death by a mob in a displaced persons camp in the Zalinge area in West Darfur. [READ MORE]
cite: un.org

July 19, 2006
More internally displaced persons arrive at Darfur: Several hundred internally displaced persons have sought refuge from the violence in Darfur in Kalma camp where they receive assistance coordinated by the Norwegian Refugee Council. The newly arrived IDPs come from Joghwin, nearby the village of Joghana in southern Darfur. Some hundreds of them have arrived to Kalma IDP camp, the biggest camp in the Darfur province in western Sudan. [READ MORE]
cite: by Siri Elverland, andnetwork.com

18 July 2006
Protecting civilians in Darfur -A briefing for effective peacekeeping: . . . The presence of troops from the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement of 5 May 2006 have not stopped abuses continuing on a massive scale. . . This briefing includes 10 recommendations that AMIS must follow to ensure effective protection of civilians in Darfur in full compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law. [READ MORE]
cite: amnestyusa.org

July 16 2006
Sudan should accept Muslim peacekeepers - Bill Clinton: ADDIS ABABA: Sudan should be pressured into accepting foreign peacekeepers from Muslim countries to help stem bloodshed in its troubled Darfur region, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Sunday. Sudan has refused to accept a U.N. peacekeeping mission to replace the 7,000 underfunded African Union (AU) peacekeepers currently in Darfur. Sudan has likened the proposed U.N. mission to a Western invasion. "Sudan should be pressured to accept international troops from Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh and others to help maintain peace and order in Darfur," Clinton told an audience at AU headquarters. [READ MORE]
cite: By Tsegaye Tadesse, Reuters, alertnet.org

July 13, 2006
A dying deal in Darfur: REBEL-HELD NORTH DARFUR: In this eerily depopulated area of war-ravaged Darfur, a woman named Ayesha explained to me why she and a handful of others refused to become refugees. "We fear another attack," she said, "but we brave the situation and come back to be near our village." Why, I ask. "Because this is where we belong." . . . This is the first time in my 20 years of work in Africa's war zones that I can remember meeting people so opposed to their own peace deal. They are not opposed to peace, to be sure. They are opposed to specific provisions in the Abuja agreement that would leave them vulnerable to Janjaweed predation and land-grabbing . . . [READ MORE]
cite: By John Prendergast, Editorial, The Boston Globe, boston.com

12 Jul 2006
Relief International aid worker killed in Sudan's North Darfur: A relief worker, Hassan Ahmad Idris, a Sudanese agricultural officer, with the U.S. based global humanitarian organization Relief International (RI) was killed Wednesday as a result of an armed attack on a Relief International vehicle. [READ MORE]
cite: reliefweb.int

July 12, 2006
Where is the African Union in Darfur?: An attack on the North Darfur village of Bir Maza last weekend bore all the hallmarks of the war the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias have waged for the past three years against the Darfur rebel movements and the civilians accused of supporting them: a ground offensive by regular and militia forces, aerial support from helicopter gunships, murder, and rape. But the government's partner in crime in Bir Maza was not the Janjaweed. It was Khartoum's new partner in peace - the faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by Minni Minawi . . . [READ MORE]
cite: Commentary by Julie Flint, The Daily Star

12 July 2006
No sign of peace after Darfur deal: KHARTOUM: The future of a peace agreement signed by a Darfur rebel faction and the Khartoum government looks bleak as violence continues, rebel factions splinter into new groups and the West looks away. Some analysts say the May 5 agreement, signed by only one of three negotiating rebel factions, was flawed, having been rushed through with few incentives for the rebels. Others said failure to implement the deal had led to a climate of mistrust . . . [READ MORE]
cite: sudantribune.com

07.12.06
Is Chad the new Darfur? Spillover Effect: In recent months, human rights groups and journalists have begun to report an ominous development in central Africa: The Darfur genocide, now in its fourth year, appears increasingly to be spilling over into eastern Chad. Why is this happening? [READ MORE]
cite: by Eric Reeves, tnr.com

11 July 2006
Darfur: What Should the U.S. Do?: Herein lies the dilemma. What does one ask of an administration that lied us into a war and occupation of Iraq; threatens Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Syria and North Korea with possible military action; works to humiliate and undermine the United Nations; ignored Somalian hellish clan-based civil wars until it was revealed that an Islamist movement was becoming influential; has spoken out of both sides of its mouth with regard to fully funding HIV/AIDS treatment and research; and mocks the entire notion of global warming? It's not as if the word of this administration is worth much, except, perhaps, to its corporate allies. . .
[READ MORE]
cite: Commentary by Bill Fletcher, Jr., Chicago Defender, chicagodefender.com

10 Jul 2006
POLL-Sudan is world's most dangerous place for children: LONDON, July 11 (AlertNet): Sudan, Uganda and Congo are the world's three most dangerous places for children due to wars that have brought death, disease and displacement to millions, a Reuters AlertNet poll showed. [READ MORE]
cite: alertnet.org

10 Jul 2006
Darfur's once-united rebels are now fighting each other: TAWILLA, Sudan: The attack on the village of Tarny was a textbook Darfur killing spree: Gunmen, riding on horses and in SUVs, swarmed in before dawn, looting livestock and shooting villagers. The only difference: These gunmen weren't the fearsome Arab militiamen known as the janjaweed. Instead, villagers said, the men who raided Tarny last month were members of the rebel movement that used to protect them from the janjaweed. [READ MORE]
cite: mercurynews.com

July 9, 2006
Why I work for land that killed my father: The son of executed activist Ken Saro-Wiwa believes his support for the President of Nigeria can help bring peace to the conflict-ravaged country. [READ MORE]
cite: Ken Wiwa, observer.guardian.co.uk

July 9 2006
SLA optimistic on peace deal despite setbacks: KHARTOUM (Reuters): The only Darfur rebel faction to sign a peace deal with the Khartoum government said on Sunday it was still optimistic despite the passing of key deadlines, continuing violence and widespread opposition to the deal. Mahgoub Hussein, Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebel group spokesman and member of a team sent to Khartoum to implement the May 5 peace deal, said the agreement was widely accepted and that the Khartoum government was earnest in seeking peace.   [READ MORE]
cite: alertnet.org

July 4 2006
Old Vow Sparks New Relief Effort: A rabbi spurs Darfur drive with message that Jews must say "Never again" to all genocide: John Fishel, president of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, spoke of Darfur [and] told of the anguish he witnessed at a refugee camp there. Of the thousands of people he saw living in the open, under tarpaulins. Of how there's little water for drinking and none for hygiene. Of how women are often raped as they go hunting for firewood to heat the food donated by relief organizations. Of how they return to the camps beaten, bloody and shamed. The suffering, he said, is unimaginable. Jews know what suffering is, he said. Jews must act.

It is a sentiment being repeated across the Jewish community as leaders ask congregations to consider the carnage in Sudan and think carefully about the words: "Never again." What do these words mean, they ask. Do they mean that Jews vow never again to endure a genocide? Or are they also a promise that Jews will not sit by while others are systematically destroyed? [READ MORE]
cite: By Lisa Richardson, Los Angeles Times, latimes.com

23 June 2006
US to keep pressing for international force in Darfur: The United States plans to keep pressing for an international force in Sudan's war-torn Darfur province, despite fierce opposition from Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir.

But two years after dubbing the government repression in Darfur as "genocide," and six weeks after the signing of the Abuja peace accord, the United States has not yet managed to get the international community to budge, while violence rages on, experts say.
"I think our diplomacy is going to be consistent," State Department spokesperson Adam Ereli said on Wednesday. "It's based on a strong and unified international consensus, frankly, that the current peacekeeping mission in Darfur must be transitioned to a UN force."  [READ MORE]
cite: mg.co.za

23 Jun 2006
Concerns over implementation of Darfur peace deal: NAIROBI, 23 Jun 2006 (IRIN) - The implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) is falling behind schedule and threatening the fragile truce in Sudan's western region, observers have warned. The most critical weaknesses of the DPA are that not all rebel groups signed the peace deal and its implementation relies to a large extent on the goodwill of the Sudanese government.

The DPA was signed on 5 May by the Sudanese government and the largest of the three main rebel factions, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) led by Minni Minnawi. Abdelwahid Mohamed al-Nur, the leader of another faction of the SLM/A and Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement refused to sign, claiming it did not fulfill their key demands.  [READ MORE]
cite: irinnews.org

06/23/06
Obasanjo: Nigeria remains engaged in Sudan peace talks: Lagos, Nigeria: President Olusegun Obasanjo says Nigeria will continue to encourage all stakeholders in Darfur to accept the recent peace agreement signed on Sudan`s troubled western Darfur region. Speaking in Abuja Wednesday at an audience with General Bona Malwal, a Special Envoy of President Mohammed Omar El-Bashir of Sudan, President Obasanjo said efforts to persuade other groups to endorse the peace agreement would be sustained.  [READ MORE]
cite: angolapress-angop.ao

June 23, 2006
Assessment team calls for reinforcement of AU mission in Darfur:   [READ MORE]
cite: english.people.com.cn

June 22, 2006
U.N., African Union Warn of Darfur Fights: The 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur requires urgent and effective support from the United Nations to prevent a new round of fighting later this year, AU and U.N. officials said Thursday. "There is a risk of major violence," the U.N. peacekeeping chief, Jean-Marie Guehenno, said at the end of a two-week assessment mission to Sudan's western Darfur region. "The risk of fragmentation, of a new cycle of violence, after the rainy season is quite real, very real."

The AU troops in Darfur have been unable to halt the killing and looting that has left about 200,000 people dead and displaced another 2 million since the conflict began 2003.

The AU force needs "a more robust mandate, but also more robust support from the United Nations," Djinnit said at a news conference with Guehenno. The one rebel leader in Darfur who signed a May 5 peace accord, Minni Minnawi, warned last week that the agreement will collapse if U.N. peacekeepers are not deployed to implement it. But Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has ruled out any U.N. deployment in Darfur. He said Tuesday he would personally lead the "resistance" if U.N. troops came to Darfur, accusing them of being neo-colonialists.   [READ MORE]
cite: By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, The Associated Press via washingtonpost.com

22 June 2006
Chadian civilians help Janjaweed attack countrymen: N'DJAMENA: Growing numbers of Chadian civilians are joining raids on their black African countrymen by mounted Arab Janjaweed militia from Sudan's neighbouring Darfur region as violence worsens in eastern Chad, survivors say.

There is a long history of cross-border Janjaweed incursions along the Chad-Sudan border, but observers say in the last three months there has been a marked upsurge in the frequency and violence of attacks, and more involvement of Chadian civilians as an insurgency by Chadian rebels has intensified.

"When the Janjaweed come, there are also Chadians with them," said Hassan Moussa, who helped bury the dead after a Janjaweed massacre in the village of Djawara in mid-April, in which 118 people died.
"The Janjaweed are from Sudan, they don't know where the villages are, or who owns which cattle. So it's the Chadians here -- certain ethnic groups -- who act as guides and accomplices for the Janjaweed," he said.  [READ MORE]
cite: By Stephanie Hancock, Reuters via alertnet.org

22 June 2006
Emergency grant aid for humanitarian assistance to the Darfur region, Sudan: On June 22 (Thu), the Government of Japan decided to extend a grant aid totaling about $10 million (about 1,100 million yen) to contribute to improving the humanitarian situation in the Darfur region, Sudan: about $5 million to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), about $3.68 million to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and about $1.32 million for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).  [READ MORE]
cite: reliefweb.int

21 June 2006
Youth philanthropy efforts to help Darfur: Maryland students raised money and leveraged nearly $500,000 worth of critically-needed pharmaceuticals to send to Darfur on the eve of their eighth grade graduation. With their parents, the students are putting together a shipment of desperately needed pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to aid the people of Darfur, Sudan this summer. The money raised by the families was leveraged into over a half million US dollars worth of drugs and medications by Counterpart International, a DC-based non-profit development agency, which delivers about $100 million worth of humanitarian aid a year.   [READ MORE]
cite: reliefweb.int

21 June 2006
SUDAN: Fragile situation in Darfur despite peace deal: NAIROBI, 21 June (IRIN) - The recent signing of a Darfur peace deal has so far not resulted in a tangible improvement of the humanitarian situation in the troubled western Sudanese region where 3.6 million people continue to be affected by the conflict, United Nations officials say.

"This is a long-term emergency situation and residential populations are getting more and more vulnerable," Dawn Elizabeth Blalock, advocacy and public information officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Khartoum told IRIN on Wednesday. "Since the beginning of this year, approximately 200,000 people have been newly displaced," she added SUDAN: Fragile situation in Darfur despite peace deal. "At the same time, we also see a trickle back of IDPs [internally displaced persons] who are returning to their villages."

Due to the ongoing security problems, the UN has been unable to reach some 250,000 vulnerable people across Darfur, Manuel Aranda da Silva, UN humanitarian coordinator and deputy special representative of the Secretary-General in Sudan, warned on Monday.  [READ MORE]
cite: IRIN via alertnet.org

20 June 2006
War Crimes In Darfur: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says that he anticipates bringing war crimes charges against those who have committed atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan. Luis Moreno Ocampo says his office is able to document thousands of killings of civilians, including "a significant number of large-scale massacres, with hundreds of victims in each incident."

According to Mr. Ocampo's report, a large number of victims and witnesses "reported that men perceived to be from the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups were deliberately targeted." The report says "there are eye-witness accounts that the perpetrators made statements reinforcing the targeted nature of the attacks, such as 'we will kill all blacks' and 'we will drive you out of this land'." Mr. Ocampo's probe finds evidence of atrocities committed by both the Sudanese government-backed Janjaweed militia and rebel forces.   [READ MORE]
cite: voanews.com

20 June 2006
Darfur's Fragile Peace Agreement: The Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) signed under African Union (AU) auspices on 5 May 2006 between Sudan’s government and the faction of the insurgent Sudan Liberation Army led by Minni Arkou Minawi (SLA/MM) is a first step toward ending the violence but strong, coordinated action is needed if it is to take hold. The document has serious flaws, and two of the three rebel delegations did not accept it. Fighting between rebel and government forces is down somewhat but violence is worse in some areas due to clashes between SLA factions, banditry, and inter-tribal feuds, while the Chad border remains volatile. If the DPA is not to leave Darfur more fragmented and conflict-prone than before, the international community must rapidly take practical measures to shore up its security provisions, improve prospects for the displaced to return home, bring in the holdouts and rapidly deploy a robust UN peacekeeping force with Chapter VII authority.  [READ OVERVIEW / READ FULL REPORT (pdf)]
cite: crisisgroup.org

20 June 2006
On World Refugee Day, United States Leads World in Darfur Aid: The United States leads all international donors in supporting organizations working to ease the suffering of Sudanese refugees, according to Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey in a World Refugee Day speech June 20.

Post-September 11 changes in U.S. immigration laws have had the unintended effect of barring some victims of conflict and oppression from resettlement in the United States because they had a history of involvement in resistance activities, or were coerced to provide “material support” - as the law reads - to their persecutors. Because of that legal stumbling block, the United States will not meet its target of admitting 54,000 refugees for resettlement in 2006, Sauerbrey said, even while officials attempt to resolve the issue justly.   [READ MORE]
cite: By Charlene Porter, Washington File Staff Writer via usinfo.state.gov

20 June 2006
Fresh cholera threat to Darfur refugees: As monitors warn of an impending crisis in Darfur after cholera arrives from the south, we visit the source of the virus in Sudan's jungle... There’s a reason why the guards in the truck ahead suddenly switch from relaxing in the sun to loading their Kalashnikovs and scanning the landscape for movement.

A single tree has marked the start of “no man's land”, a brief but deadly stretch of road joining Uganda to Sudan, and the crossing point of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the feared rebel group that commonly ambushes vehicles here and executes the passengers. At least five aid workers travelling along this road have been ambushed and killed by the rebels since October 2005, with others suffering serious injuries. For aid agencies attempting to curb the spread of deadly cholera in the region it is a risky but essential means of accessing the communities being decimated by this acute diarrhoeal illness.

Figures released last week by the World Health Organisation report 424 deaths in the region since January, with another 14,000 people infected. On Wednesday the agency confirmed reports it has spread to Darfur, where 2.5m refugees live in squalid conditions and close proximity.The UN medical authority is warning the epidemic could spread to Sudan's neighbours, and is urging those sharing its borders to be on high alert.  [READ MORE]
cite: by Richard Powell via greatreporter.com

19 June 2006
Humanitarian Aid Hindered by Violence in Darfur: The top United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Sudan says that fighting among rebel factions is blocking humanitarian access to the war-torn Darfur region. The U.N. also expressed concern about recent government restrictions in eastern Sudan, which have prevented aid from reaching vulnerable people there.

"We have had a deterioration of access in Darfur. We have at least 250,000 people that we cannot reach. Many due to in-fighting or deterioration of security in specific areas. We are trying to deal with it by negotiating with the different parties involved," said top U.N. humanitarian coordinator Manuel Aranda da Silva. "Not very positive progress in northwestern Darfur. Most of the U.N. agencies and NGO's have been obliged to pull out from that region."  [READ MORE]
cite: By Noel King via voanews.com

19 June 2006
Clooneys donate $100,000 in supplies to Darfur village: COVINGTON, KY: Nick Clooney says he and his famous son journeyed to Africa to bring attention to the war-torn region of Darfur. He and George Clooney, both Kentucky natives, recently spent a week there in April to see the area first-hand. They later donated 100-thousand dollars for 12 tons of supplies that were delivered by the International Rescue Committee. Nick Clooney says the supplies were necessary for survival for many in a refugee village there. Nick Clooney -- who spent years a broadcast journalist in Cincinnati -- will speak about his experience at several events this summer. Some images he and his son took on the trip are on display at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.  [READ MORE]
cite: Associated Press via wkyt.com

19 June 2006
Chinese arms in Darfur: the twisted trail of weapons: KHARTOUM: In a rebel camp along the barren, windswept border between Sudan and Chad, dozens of trucks packed with dreadlocked fighters manning heavy machine guns are lined up. Piled up behind them are ammunition boxes, covered in Chinese symbols -- it's impossible to know exactly where the bullets in the boxes came from but they offer a glimpse of the complex and circuitous routes of the global arms trade.

United Nations investigators have found most of the small arms fuelling the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur are Chinese, despite an arms ban on a region where tens of thousands have been killed and 2.5 million squat in squalid camps. "China has been, and continues to be, a major supplier of light weapons to the government of Sudan and many of the neighbouring states," said Ernst Jan Hogendoorn, one of four U.N. experts on a panel which recommended 17 players in the Darfur conflict be sanctioned for obstructing peace.

"Chinese arms and ammunition are relatively cheap compared to other suppliers -- some also argue that China asks fewer questions," said Hogendoorn.However, he said they found no evidence China was defying the embargo and supplying arms directly to Darfur. But weapons they had sold to Khartoum were likely to end up there. "China has used the phrase "cautious and responsible" to describe its arms export licensing, however its record of trading arms in conflict-ridden countries like Sudan ... show their actions are anything but," Amnesty arms expert Colby Goodman said in the report.

China says it takes a responsible attitude towards military exports, rejecting accusations in an Amnesty International report this month that it was selling arms to an array of human rights abusers, including Sudan and Myanmar. In a response to the report, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China exported far fewer weapons than other countries, amounting to $1.44 billion between 2000 and 2004, one 20th of U.S. arms exports over the same period.

The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) says China is the seventh biggest exporter of guns. The United States leads the rankings.  [READ MORE]
cite: By Opheera McDoom, Reuters via alertnet.org

19 June 2006
Arab world's twin southern failures: We've failed Somalia, just as we failed Sudan before it. We've failed to identify problems in their early stage and do something about them. This is something we tend to do, but nowhere more so than in the southern stretches of our world, where Africa and the Arab region merge. We get obsessed with problems on our eastern front - Iran, Iraq - and forget about the south.

Things that happen in Africa fail to command our full attention. Sudan has had a problem with the south for decades and we failed to address it in a proper manner. We could have helped Sudan find a solution, through autonomy or increased development in the south. But the problem was not pressing for us. Much of the current debacle could have been avoided had we dealt with our problems in a democratic way instead of waiting for chaos to spread and intervention to follow.  [READ MORE]
cite: An edited version of an editorial that appeared last week in Al-Ahram, Cairo via thestar.com .

18 June 2006
Mia Farrow fights for boy soldiers of Darfur: A delegation from the United Nations children's agency, Unicef, sat in the shade as 24 rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) paraded before them, pounding the desert sand of war-ravaged Darfur. The gathering looked more like a riotous school assembly than a display of military prowess. Among the fighters, the SLA had seen fit to include the boy of 14, two 15-year-olds and at least six others in their mid or early teens.

Among those who witnessed the assembly of child fighters was Mia Farrow, the actress, who is visiting Darfur as an ambassador for Unicef. "We were hearing that there were no child soldiers but it was very clear that there were," said Miss Farrow, 61. "We saw them carrying guns right there with the adults." She will take that message to decision-makers in America and to Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, whom she hopes to see this week. "The powerful people I am going to meet know full well what is happening here and that is part of the tragedy," she said.  [READ MORE]
cite: By David Blair, in Galap, North Darfur via telegraph.co.uk

June 18, 2006
Dealing with the devil in Darfur: BEIRUT: As the peace talks for the Darfur region of Sudan drew to a close last month, the United States took over the task of defining the solution. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick flew into Abuja, Nigeria, where the talks were being held, on May 2 and three days later the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed. The only trouble is, the United States is backing the most abusive rebel leader in Darfur.

The response to the peace agreement was tepid in Abuja. But it was far cooler in Darfur, where the agreement is widely viewed as a peace between two criminal elements: the Sudanese government and Minni Arcua Minnawi, the leader of the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army that is drawn mainly from the Zaghawa tribe.

But since the rebellion began, the abusive behavior of Minnawi's forces has awakened old fears that the tribe has a hidden agenda: the creation of a new Zaghawa homeland carved out of the more fertile lands of others. Minnawi's acceptance of the peace agreement is reason enough for most Darfurians to reject it.  [READ MORE]
cite: Julie Flint, The New York Times via iht.com/

June 18, 2006
Egypt hosts conference on Darfur : Egyptian Foreign Ministry will host on Tuesday the first International Conference to boost peace and reconstruct Sudanese region of Darfur. This came as an Egyptian move at the regional and international levels for serious and fruitful acts in Darfur. Director of Sudanese Department in Egyptian Foreign Ministry ambassador Masoum Marzouq stated today that the meeting will include representatives of different parts in the state and a number of businessmen. He added that this meeting is also to boost peace agreement of Darfur.
cite: english.bna.bh

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June 17, 2006
Chicago Bulls star, a Sudan native, appeals for help for Darfur: Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng said he hopes his televised appeal during the fifth game of the NBA finals will offer Americans an opportunity to learn more about the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan and how they can help its victims.

The 21-year-old, 6-foot-9 native of Sudan will star in a public service announcement seeking support for Sudanese relief efforts. The spot will air for the first time Sunday on Chicago's WLS-TV during the game between the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks; NBC-TV has also committed to airing the piece.

"The situation in Darfur is a lot worse than what people know," said Deng, a member of the Dinka tribe in southern Sudan. His family moved to the United States when he was 5 years old to escape a civil war. "A lot has been hidden. It's like all the genocides of the past. People are just guessing at how many have been massacred. The more we look, the higher we'll actually find those numbers," said Deng, who played one year at Duke University before being drafted in 2004.  [READ MORE]
cite: Associated Press via belleville.com

17 June 2006
The UN Security Council and a final betrayal of Darfur: No willingness to confront Khartoum on the need for civilian and humanitarian protection:
Despite rapidly escalating violence throughout Darfur and eastern Chad, the UN Security Council refuses to push for urgent measures to protect civilians and humanitarians. Instead, deferential Council members have repeatedly insisted that the genocidaires of the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum will determine whether an international force deploys to Darfur, even as the regime continues to send explicit signals that it has no intention of allowing for such deployment. In short, all evidence suggests that the only protection for a region the size of France will continue to be a radically inadequate African Union (AU) force---and that most of eastern Chad will continue to be without security of any kind. This continuing exclusive reliance on the AU, whose performance has recently deteriorated badly, comes even as "reports from the UN and the AU indicate that violence against civilians in Darfur has doubled since the May 5 peace deal" (Associated Press [dateline Khartoum], June 7, 2006).

The AU itself increasingly recognizes that it simply cannot provide the security required in Darfur or implement the merely notional "Darfur Peace Agreement," which has been overwhelmingly rejected by Darfuris in the camps and elsewhere as wholly inadequate in addressing their security concerns" "’We need to hand over the baton to the UN,’ [AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare] said. ’There is a necessity today to implement the Darfur Peace Agreement.... The AU today does not have the resources to be there. We have to be clear about that.... We don’t have the capacity to face a peacekeeping situation or an extended conflict.’" (Associated Press [dateline: Addis Ababa], June 7, 2006)

But even were the Security Council to find the political will, over Khartoum’s objections and a menacing Chinese veto threat, to pass a resolution authorizing deployment of a UN peace support operation with Chapter 7 authority, the timeline is unconscionably long. As UN peacekeeping head Jean-Marie Guehenno recently confessed: "’A six-month timeline between the decision to deploy and the deployment is a more practical timeline especially if you think of the logistical conditions in Darfur,’ [Guehenno ] said. ’January 2007 is a much more realistic date.’" (Reuters [dateline: Khartoum], June 12, 2006)  [READ MORE]
cite: By Eric Reeves via sudantribune.com

16 June 2006
Irish bishops call for end to 'scandal' of Darfur : On the first day of the June General Meeting of the Irish Episcopal Conference, the Bishops' Commission for Justice and Social Affairs issued the following statement on the humanitarian disaster in Darfur:

DARFUR: TIME TO END THIS SCANDAL OF INTERNATIONAL NEGLECT "Justice is both the aim and the intrinsic criterion of all politics. Politics is more than a mere mechanism for defining the rules of public life: its origin and its goal are found in justice, which by its very nature has to do with ethics." (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 2006, section 28)

The Irish Commission for Justice and Social Affairs calls on the: - Irish public to add their voices to those who are calling for an urgent increase in humanitarian aid to relieve the worst effects of the humanitarian disaster in Darfur;
- Irish Government to pressure the EU and the UN to apply sanctions against the perpetrators of the Darfur conflict;
- Irish Government to use its good offices as a member of the EU and the UN to ensure an increase in the number of peace keeping troops in the region;   [READ MORE]
cite: indcatholicnews.com

June 16, 2006
Brownback pushes for Darfur aid: Emergency spending bill includes money for Darfur mission: The Senate on Thursday allocated $60 million toward launching a U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Darfur region of Sudan. The money to help stem the brutality and chaos in Darfur is part of the $94.5 billion emergency spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and aid to Gulf Coast hurricane victims. President Bush has said he will sign it into law. The Darfur money was included in an amendment sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and co-sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. To pay for the proposed peacekeeping mission, funding for a huge U.S. embassy project in Baghdad was cut. ... "The situation is simple: if we don't act, people will die," said Brownback, one of the Senate's leading figures on Darfur.  [READ MORE]
cite: AP, ljworld.com

June 15, 2006
U.N. prosecutor documents civilian deaths in Darfur: United Nations: The U.N.-backed court probing war crimes in Darfur has documented thousands of civilian deaths, hundreds of alleged rapes and a "significant number" of massacres that killed hundreds of people at once, the top prosecutor said Wednesday.

Witnesses and victims have reported that three ethnic groups in particular -- the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa -- had been singled out for attack in Darfur, Luis Moreno Ocampo said in a report to the Security Council. Those details are among the strongest indication so far that Moreno Ocampo, the chief prosecutor with the International Criminal Court, has uncovered substantial evidence of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in Darfur.  [READ MORE]
cite: indystar.com

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June 14, 2006
Massacres in Darfur: ICC Probe: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says massacres involving hundreds of victims have taken place in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region and there have been hundreds of rape cases.   [READ MORE]
cite: sbs.com.au

June 14, 2006
Darfur demands military response: "Do I hope there will be a significant decline in violence? Yes. Can I be certain? No." That was Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick's pessimistic assessment of the peace agreement he helped broker last month between the Sudanese government and the ragtag rebel groups whose uprising has provided the pretext for the three-year-old genocide in Darfur.

Negotiated under intense U.S. and international pressure, the agreement was hailed by President Bush as "the beginnings of hope for the people of Darfur." But Mr. Zoellick's lack of confidence has proved warranted.

As politicians and activists express relief that diplomacy has succeeded, the cease-fire provision of the peace agreement has gone ignored by all parties. As the attention and concern of the international community ebbs, Darfuri villagers continue to flee onslaughts from the ferocious government-backed Janjaweed militia.  [READ MORE]
cite: By Evan R. Goldstein and Hasdai Westbrook via baltimoresun.com

13 June 2006
Armed men attack UN office in Darfur, wound guard: Four armed men in military uniforms attacked an office of the U.N. refugee agency in Habila, in Sudan's western Darfur, wounding a guard, a spokeswoman for the agency said on Tuesday. The gang shot the guard in the leg before escaping with telecommunications equipment. No one else was hurt, Jennifer Pagonis, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told journalists. It was not known whether the attackers were criminals, members of one of the rebel groups or of one of the pro-government militias rife in Darfur.  [READ MORE]
cite: Reuters via alertnet.org

June 13, 2006
Sudanese president issues decree on amnesty for Darfur rebels: Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir issued on Monday a presidential decree on a general amnesty for elements of rebel groups in the western region of Darfur who have signed a peace agreement with the government. The amnesty is applicable to all members of the main faction in the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Minna Arkou Minawi, who signed in the Nigerian capital Abuja on May 5 the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) in the presence of top mediators sent by the African Union (AU), the United Nations as well as the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries.   [READ MORE]
cite: english.people.com.cn

12 June 2006
No justice for Darfur victims: A Human Rights Watch report says that the Special Criminal Courts on the Events in Darfur, established by the Sudanese Government to deal with atrocities committed in the region, have not brought justice to war crimes victims. The report says that the 13 cases brought before the courts have involved only low-ranking individuals accused of relatively minor offences. IRIN notes that the report accuses the Sudanese Government of purposely creating a court that removes the jurisdiction from the International Criminal Court. The major obstacles to the prosecution of war crimes include a lack of clarity in Sudanese law, the absence of a legal basis to hold commanders accountable, and provisions granting immunity to military and other personnel. The report concludes that it is crucial that the special courts provide accountability for the atrocities committed in Darfur.  [READ MORE]
cite: legalbrief.co.za

June 11, 2006
A banner effort to aid Darfur:
Campaign to raise awareness of genocide takes off in Needham: Alan Greenfield's plan is this: He will pay for the banners and yard signs -- all you have to do is put them up. His offer is open to Needham residents, though he hopes folks in other towns buy the banners as well. His goal is to blanket the area in green and capture the attention of the national media, maybe even President Bush. Alan Greenfield runs a dog-walking service and his wife, Claudia Greenfield, owns the Grey Goose boutique in downtown Needham.

John Moran, owner of the UPS franchise in the center of town, put up a banner in its window about two weeks ago. "I've only had one person make a wisecrack about me getting into politics," said Moran. "This isn't politics." Moran said he told the customer about the systematic destruction of villages in Darfur by Arab militias. "He didn't know what was going on."   [READ MORE]
cite: By Lauren K. Meade, Globe Correspondent

May 23, 2006
Upsurge of Violence Harming Civilians in Southern Sudan: An upsurge of violence has led to displacement, injury, and the death of civilians in the Upper Nile and Jonglei provinces of southern Sudan. According to the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), clashes between armed groups and direct attacks on villages have occurred in the region north and south of the Sobat River since the beginning of April. The deteriorating security situation has also forced MSF to evacuate a number of its international teams from the area.

On April 10, armed militia attacked the village of Ulang, where MSF operates a clinic. Most of the patients and villagers, along with MSF staff, fled in search of safety. Thirty-one people were reported killed and dozens injured; 15 were treated in the MSF hospital in the nearby town of Nasir. "We are concerned about the growing number of violent incidents," says MSF coordinator Cristoph Hippchen. "This means humanitarian assistance to the people of Upper Nile and Jonglei, already far below what is needed, will be even less now."

MSF is one of the very few providers of health care in Upper Nile and Jonglei, an area where malaria, TB, and the deadly tropical disease kala azar are rampant. While in some locations Sudanese staff have been able to continue treating some of the patients, access to essential medical care for the population is now severely reduced.  [READ MORE]
cite: doctorswithoutborders.org

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May 22, 2006
Reduction of Food Aid Threatens Displaced Persons in Darfur: The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is concerned about the impact of the World Food Program's (WFP) reduction of rations to displaced populations in the Darfur region of Sudan. On April 28, 2006, the WFP announced that because of inadequate funds it could supply only a half-ration of vital foods–1,050 kilocalories per person per day instead of 2,100–to the 2.1 million people who need emergency food aid in Darfur.  [READ MORE
cite: doctorswithoutborders.org

16 May 2006
Sudan to announce new rules for Darfur aid groups: KHARTOUM: Sudan said on Tuesday it would announce new procedures for one of the world's largest aid operations in Darfur within a week, following a peace deal with a rebel faction in the violent western region. Aid workers have complained of harassment, travel restrictions and bureaucratic procedures obstructing their work in Darfur. Some who reported the violence they were seeing, such as Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), have been threatened with eviction.

U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland urged the government to lift restrictions on 14,000 aid workers trying to help more than 3 million people. "This afternoon we will be holding meetings with international NGOs (non-governmental organisations) ... in order to review the Darfur file," Humanitarian Affairs Minister Kosti Manyebi told reporters on Tuesday. He added new procedures would be revealed within a week.  [READ MORE]
cite: By Opheera McDoom, today.reuters.com

15 May 2006
Can Darfur's peace survive?: No-one was expecting Darfur's peace agreement to bring about an immediate transformation on the ground. But the short time since the deal in Abuja have shown the size of the challenge ahead.

The Sudan Liberation Army, the region's biggest rebel movement is split in two. One faction lead by the wiry Minni Minnawi has signed the deal while the other faction under Abdul Wahid Mohammed al-Nur demands further concessions from the Sudanese government.  [READ MORE]
cite: By Jonah Fisher, BBC News, Darfur

May 14, 2006
Children forced into Darfur death squads: IT was during Haroun Abdullah's Arab class that the rebels arrived. The 14-year-old watched, helpless, as they carted away 15 of his classmates. "They had knives and sticks," he said, eyes downcast. According to the United Nations, the children were among as many as 5,000 male Sudanese refugees from the Darfur conflict who over the past two months have been abducted from camps in neighbouring Chad.  [READ MORE]
cite: Katharine Houreld, Sudan-Chad border, The Sunday Times

May 13, 2006
UN Security Council seeks speedy advance mission to Darfur: UN Security Council members Friday discussed a draft resolution demanding that Sudan and African rebel groups help speed up the start of a UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur. The draft called for the dispatch before May 30 of UN and African Union advance teams to assess the situation in Darfur after last week's signing of a peace agreement in Abuja, Nigeria, to end the ethnic conflict in Darfur.   [READ MORE]
cite: news.monstersandcritics.com

May 11, 2006
Darfur: An opportunity which should not be missed: The peace agreement signed by the Sudanese government and one of the Darfur rebel groups on May 5th is an opportunity to end the nightmare its people have been suffering for the last three years. It is also a real test for all the players in this man-made crisis which has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives.  [READ MORE]
cite: alertnet.org

08 May 2006
Tough, but possible to make Darfur peace deal work: ABUJA: Implementing a peace accord in Sudan's Darfur region will be fraught with difficulties but the agreement can work if foreign donors keep their promises, said one of the experts who wrote the deal's security provisions. The Sudanese government and Darfur's biggest rebel faction signed a peace settlement on Friday to end a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and driven more than 2 million from their homes.

"There is no euphoria. No one here is thinking this is going to be easy," said Alex de Waal, who was closely involved in negotiations in the Nigerian capital that yielded the accord.

The main faction of the SLA, led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, signed the peace agreement. But a rival SLA faction led by Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur rejected it, as did the JEM. De Waal said their refusal to sign would create problems during the implementation but these were not insurmountable. "The spoilers are weak militarily which is the most important element. Their main card is propaganda," de Waal told Reuters in an interview at the hotel where the talks took place.   [READ MORE]
cite: By Estelle Shirbon, Reuters via alertnet.org

May 07, 2006
World still oblivious to deadly Darfur crisis: OTTAWA: In a week filled with fitful steps toward peace in Sudan, the most hopeful sign for the suffering people of Darfur may well have come when George Clooney joined a protest march in Washington.  [READ MORE]
cite: Andrew Duffy, CanWest News Service, canada.com

May 07, 2006
Muslim silence over Darfur regretted: Tarek Fatah, a progressive Muslim activist from Toronto, has urged Muslims to raise their voice against the Darfur genocide. In an article published in the Globe and Mail, Canada’s most influential newspaper, Fatah, a Pakistani-Canadian, decries the position taken by many Muslims that the Jews have somehow stolen the issue of Darfur. He writes, "The fact that more than 200,000 Darfurians, almost all of them Muslims, have been killed in an ongoing genocide; the fact that more than a million Muslim Darfurians are displaced refugees living in squalor and fear, appears not to have registered with the leadership of traditional Muslim organisations and mosques in this country. One would have expected Muslim organisations to be leading the call for last week's debate in (the Canadian) Parliament. One expected them . . . to stand in solidarity with their fellow Muslim organisations and mosques in the country."  [READ MORE]
cite: dailytimes.com.pk

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02/10/06
It's time to do something about Darfur:  The scale and scope of the Sudanese disaster is hard to comprehend. But a Wichita lawyer says people have to understand the tragedy before they can help. That's why she wants to get every member of every church in the city engaged in an effort to learn about the disaster -- and to help. On the third Sunday in May, Barbara James is asking each man, woman, boy and girl to bring one dollar to church for "A Dollar for Africa" day . . . Her three-step method to get people to help: Get interested, get informed, get involved. "Some people might feel helpless," said James, who two years ago won an award from the Congressional Black Caucus for her relief work on behalf of Africa in 2002. "Feeling helpless is no reason not to do something. Do something. Whatever that something is." For more information call Barbara James at 316-652-0076 or e-mail her at attyjames-at-aol.com. [READ MORE]
cite: http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/local/13836637.htm

02/10/06
Students called to action at Darfur panel discussion
Colby College Professor of Sociology Jonathan White called students to action at the Darfur Teach-In Thursday evening and urged them to work together to end conflict and human rights abuses in Sudan. "There's a massive university movement that is taking place," White said. "It is student action from the United States that led the way to the divestment movement. You have no right to say that you can't make a difference," he said. [READ MORE]
cite: http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/

02/10/06
The miracle of water brings hope to Darfur refugees
The well project is reaching nine thousand Muslim families in a very isolated and remote area. Several other humanitarian agencies were unsuccessful finding water in this remote wilderness region. [READ MORE]
cite: http://www.mnnonline.org/article/8293

02/09/06
US State Department Dishonesty on Darfur
Last week, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer signaled a shift in American policy towards Darfur when she refused to say that genocide was currently taking place in the region. Asked twice whether the Darfur genocide was ongoing, she would only say that "a genocide has occurred in Sudan and we continue to be concerned about the security environment in Darfur." In other words, there was a genocide but now it's over. Frazer went on to assert that "there isn't large-scale organized violence taking place today," while describing the current situation as "a series of small attacks and incidents." This is mendacity . . . [READ MORE]
cite: http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=14000

02/09/06
Slovene president calls for peace talks on Darfur
Slovene president Janez Drnovsek said Thursday that Slovenia was ready to host peace talks between the Sudanese government and representatives of the Darfur rebel groups. "The warring sides have accepted my role as a mediator and have indicated that the original proposal for a peace agreement was a good basis for talks", Drnovsek told the press. [READ MORE]
cite: http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=14005

02/09/06
Annan to Ask for US Troops in Darfur Peace Mission
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on the United States and other wealthy countries to contribute manpower and equipment for a new peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region. Security Council. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, in his capacity as Council president for February, issued a statement authorizing the secretary-general to begin contingency planning for a transition from the African Union force now in Darfur to a new, larger and more robust U.N. force. . . [READ MORE]
cite: http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-02-09-voa58.cfm

02/09/06
Leaders of Sudan, Chad OK peace agreement
The leaders of Sudan and Chad have signed a peace agreement to end increasing tension over Sudan's Darfur region, pledging to normalize diplomatic relations and deny refuge to each other's rebel groups. Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir and Chad's president Idriss Deby pledged late Wednesday, after a day of talks hosted by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, "to immediately commit themselves to work to prevent the presence of rebels on each other territory," Libya's Jamhiriya news agency reported.
cite: seattlepi.nwsource.com

02/09/06
Eritrea denies smuggling arms to Darfur rebels
ASMARA (Reuters): Eritrea denied on Thursday U.N. charges of smuggling weapons to rebels in Sudan's western Darfur region, as direct flights resumed between Asmara and Khartoum. U.N. sanctions experts said this week Eritrea had given arms, logistical support, and training to both the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and probably continues to do so.
cite: washingtonpost.com

02/08/06
Govts urged to crack down on arms smuggling to Darfur
A United Nations panel of sanctions experts has called on Sudan's neighboring countries to crack down on arms smuggling to the war-battered Darfur region, west Sudan. . . . During its investigation, the panel determined that since a UN arms embargo was imposed on all non-governmental groups in 2004, the armed opposition Sudan Liberation Movement and Justice and Equality Movement have continued to receive arms, ammunition and equipment from Chad, Eritrea, Libya and other unknown sources. [READ MORE]
cite: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/09/content_4154513.htm

02/08/06
Listeners hear first hand Darfur experience from researcher
Recently, Bercault was in the Chad-Sudan area in February of 2005, and was able to portray to the crowd a first hand experience through his words and pictures from the slide show. "We have to react very quickly," Bercault said referring to how fast-paced the genocide is becoming. "There used to be farmers and Arab tribes. . . they used to live together and share the territory [of Darfur] . . . [then the] Arabs tried to get their own land . . . and there was the introduction of automatic weapons into the area." With the support of the Sudanese government, a tribe of people known as the Janjaweed has been wiping out villages and killing many, including children, while also raping women as a form of ethnic cleansing, according to Bercault. [READ MORE]
cite: http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=3788

02/08/06
Sudan policeman in court over Darfur violence
EL-GENEINA, Sudan, (Reuters): In a tiny, dim courtroom in Sudan, policeman Jamal Zacharia stood trial on Wednesday for shooting and killing a student who tried to demonstrate against an attack by militias on a Darfuri village. Zacharia is accused of opening fire on December 21 on a crowd of students who wanted to march in protest against an attack on the nearby Abu Surooj village by Arab militia.
cite: alertnet.org

02/08/06
US "can't do more for Darfur"
Washington: United States vice-president Dick Cheney said America was "doing everything we can do" to stop violence in Sudan's troubled Darfur region. He said: "It's a huge area. It's difficult to get at, but we have been actively involved. I am satisfied we are doing everything we can do." On Friday, the US backed away from its previous description of the conflict in Darfur as "genocide", calling it very serious, but mostly a series of small attacks by different parties. [READ MORE]
cite: http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1877107,00.html

02/07/06
Khartoum 'preparing attacks'
Asmara: East Sudan's main rebel group on Tuesday accused Khartoum of preparing attacks against its positions and called off long-delayed peace talks that were to have begun this week in Libya. The Eastern Front said the Sudanese government was acting duplicitously by at once readying for the expected negotiations in Tripoli and an imminent assault on its bases with troops and pro-Khartoum militias. [READ MORE]
cite: http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,6119,2-11-1447_1876727,00.html

02/07/06
Refugee voices: Women in Kalma camp, Darfur
Located 17 kilometers outside of Nyala, Kalma camp is one of Darfur's largest, with nearly 90,000 inhabitants. Most have lived there for nearly two years, fleeing the fighting between rebel groups and government-sponsored Janjaweed militias. There is no Sudanese government presence or police in Kalma camp. After the government police attempted to arrest of one of the sheikhs, the angry population chased the police and the government camp managers out, burning down their offices. So the police are now stationed a few kilometers outside the entrance to the camp. In retaliation for being thrown out of the camp, the Sudanese government has cracked down hard on Kalma, blocking all commercial trade to the camp for months. [READ MORE]
cite: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6LS49V?OpenDocument

02/06/06
Will the world rescue Darfur?
The African Union sent a strong message last week to Sudan's government, and to the world, about its commitment to ending the indiscriminate violence in the country's western province of Darfur. The 53-member union refused to elect Sudan President Omar al-Bashir as its chairman even though he was the only announced candidate. Leaders of several other African countries opposed his election because of escalating human rights abuses in Darfur.
cite: chicagotribune.com

02/06/06
Berkeley experts say stoves can aid women in Darfur
Two Berkeley scientists hope to help women in western Sudan's troubled Darfur region by designing inexpensive, energy-efficient stoves that use about half as much wood as the fires the refugees currently use for cooking. The two scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who visited a camp in November were struck by the desperation and extreme hardship many of the people there were enduring, particularly the women.
cite: mercurynews.com

02/06/06
Silent terror of the Darfur refugee
When mounted Arab raiders struck Nasir Ali Hassan's village, firing from the saddle and setting huts ablaze, the seven-year-old boy fled with his mother across the arid plains of Darfur. . . Nasir is among millions of victims of a war that is escalating and becoming more chaotic, with militias fighting among themselves and the governments of Sudan and Chad being sucked into cross-border attacks. [READ MORE]
cite: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/

01/05/06 cite: Save the Children Alliance:
Children in Darfur abandoned by international community

01/04/06 cite: Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director and Bill Frelick, Director, Human Rights Watch
Letter to President Mubarak on the Sudanese Refugees in Cairo

2005

12/29/05 UN Report:
Atrocities continue in Sudan's Darfur region
Despite a consistent and forceful Security Council response to the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region, reports from there confirm a marked deterioration since September, including an increase in ethnic clashes, destabilizing elements crossing in from Chad and continuing banditry, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a report released today. [LEARN MORE]
cite: http://www.un.org/

12/27/05 UN Report:
Western Sudan's Darfur area is still scene of rape and banditry
With both Sudanese Government and rebel troops violating the ceasefire agreement, the security situation in the Darfur provinces is volatile . . . Harassment, beating and even killing of internally displaced people (IDPs) grazing their cattle outside their camps have continued to be reported, along with allegations of rape and attempted rape of women and girls by Sudanese Government elements in Tawila, North Darfur. [LEARN MORE]
cite: http://www.un.org/

2004

UN pulls some staff from Darfur
November 11 2004: BBC NEWS: "The United Nations is withdrawing some staff from Nyala in Sudan's Darfur region because authorities are preventing them from doing their work. They have been confined to the town since trying to stop the forced relocation of refugees, the UNHCR says. Authorities say the troops were trying to move people to a better camp, but police were seen beating up refugees. On Wednesday, police fired tear gas and beat El-Geer camp residents in front of UN and African Union (AU) officials. [READ MORE]

New Sarah McLachlan Video Benefits CARE
Singer Sarah McLachlan's new video, World On Fire, was made with an unheard-of budget of just $15. Mclachlan will donate some $148,000 (the cost of a "typical" music video) to 11 humanitarian organizations, with more than $21,000 going to CARE's work in Latin America and Afghanistan. [MORE DETAILS HERE]

WFP SURPASSES TARGET, FEEDING MORE THAN 1.3 MILLION PEOPLE IN DARFUR
Press Release: WFP meets Darfur target, 6 Oct 2004. WFP feeds more than 1.3 million people in the Darfur region of western Sudan in September, exceeding its own target of 1.2 million and recording its largest food distribution since the humanitarian crisis began. [MORE DETAILS HERE]

Emergency Aid and Long-Term Solutions for War-Torn Sudan
CARE is helping meet the needs of the currently displaced population by distributing food and providing other essential items- such as blankets, cooking pots and soap - that people need to survive in the harsh terrain. [MORE DETAILS HERE]

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