What abour Darfur?

[High_Gravity]

New Republic: Blind To The Dawn Of 'New Darfur'

The ethnically targeted human destruction in South Kordofan in Sudan, directed overwhelmingly at the African peoples of the Nuba Mountains, continues to spread and intensify. Many are warning of a "new Darfur," a reprise of the destruction of the African tribal groups in western Sudan by Khartoum's forces from 2003 to the present. The number of people displaced is likely in the hundreds of thousands and growing, and the U.N. reports that the "security situation continues to deteriorate." Nearly all World Food Program workers have been evacuated. Many Nuba are now living in caves, without adequate food, water, or medical care.

But what we are seeing might not be most accurately described as another Darfur. Rather, the stage is being set for a reprise of the genocide of the 1990s in the Nuba Mountains, when hundreds of thousands died. Brutally assaulted on the ground and from the air, suffering under a relief aid embargo, forced into "peace camps" where many died, the Nuba faced a campaign of extinction. Today, the fear that this horror might be happening again is palpable. A correspondent for Time magazine in Juba recently interviewed an aid worker who said, "You can see it in all their eyes. They are scared. They see this as a fight for survival." Hunted "like animals" by helicopter gunships, bombed by military aircraft, and haunted by their terrible history, the Nuba are right to be fearful. As one aid worker has predicted, "if the ground offensive commences, 'absolute carnage'... could ensue."

Which demands that we ask the two-fold question: What should the international community, namely the U.S., be doing to stop the violence — and is it doing it? Unfortunately, the answer to the second half of the question continues to be "no." "This is going to spread like wildfire," an American official told The New York Times earlier this week, adding that, without mediation, "you're going to have massive destruction and death in central Sudan, and no one seems able to do anything about it."

THE CIVIL ADMINISTRATION in the part of the Nuba Mountains most heavily attacked has collated figures from all of South Kordofan's 19 states and said that approximately 425,000 people have been displaced by the conflict. (This number has yet to be confirmed.) Meanwhile, relief access to the region continues to wither, and Khartoum refuses to grant airspace to U.N. relief agencies. The regime has even gone so far as threaten to shoot down U.N. aircraft refusing to abide by the flight ban.

Beyond this obstruction, Khartoum is displaying an attitude of mounting hostility toward the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Kordofan. The kinds of threats being made are revealed in a grim incident cited in a recent internal U.N. report:

Sudan's forces detained four United Nations peacekeepers and subjected them to "a mock firing squad," the organization said Monday [June 20, 2011], calling the intimidation part of a strategy to make it nearly impossible for aid agencies and monitors to work in the region.

It seems, again, to be a repeat of the 1990s, when Khartoum shut off humanitarian aid to the Nuba region. Indeed, despite the regime's massive military buildup in the regional capital of Kadugli — including hundreds of heavy military vehicles — it doesn't appear to have the stomach for confronting the Nuba Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in the rocky terrain. It's much easier — and devastating to the Nuba people — to cut off aid.

New Republic: Blind To The Dawn Of 'New Darfur' : NPR

 

[waltky]

And still the war drags on...

Darfur conflict: Sudan's bloody stalemate
29 April 2013 - A decade after the disastrous war in Darfur began, there is no end to sight to the fighting.

The intensity of the conflict in Sudan's western region has diminished since its early years, but most of Darfur is still extremely dangerous. More than 1.4 million displaced people still rely on food handouts in camps throughout Darfur, and many others have fled the country. The multi-layered conflict has also done colossal damage to Sudan's image: The US and many Western activists have accused the government of genocide. Even before the war broke out, Darfur was in trouble. Like many of the regions on Sudan's periphery, it was underdeveloped and politically marginalised. Diminishing rainfall over decades had made life precarious in Darfur, leading to recurring food shortages.

Surprise

There were frequent clashes between ethnic groups, often over "hakurat" or land rights. In the late 1980s, an Arab supremacist movement emerged, allegedly backed by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. Identity in Darfur is both fluid and complicated, but African groups like the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit felt the government was taking the side of the Arabs. Religion was not an issue: Almost everyone in Darfur is Muslim. The beginning of the war is usually given as 2003, though rebel movements had been been formed before that. In April 2003, rebels struck the airport of Fasher, capital of North Darfur.

This Darfur boy was wounded when his brother set off some unexploded ordnance near their home

The surprise raid through the desert - a tactic which became characteristic of the fighting in Darfur - was astonishingly successful. The rebels destroyed seven planes, and captured the head of the air force. Khartoum - and the world - realised something serious was under way. The Sudanese government's response, which relied on air power and an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed, has been described by the Sudan expert Alex de Waal as "counter-insurgency on the cheap". Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit villages were bombed and burnt, civilians were killed, and women were raped.

Warrants

In 2008, the UN estimated that 300,000 people had died because of the war, though Khartoum disputes the figure. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Darfur. The genocide charge alleged that he had overseen an attempt to wipe out part of the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit communities. Mr Bashir was the first sitting head of state to be the subject of an ICC arrest warrant. He, and the other senior officials facing similar charges, have denied all the accusations.

There is no doubt that the ICC arrest warrants have profoundly altered Sudan. The West wants nothing to do with President Bashir or his government. Diplomats will not meet him, and there is little chance of Sudan getting its crippling debt forgiven or US sanctions removed as long as he is in power. However, the ICC charges actually increased the president's popularity in Sudan and some Arab and African countries. They were seen as an affront to Sudan's sovereignty, and in some cases as an attack on Islam by the West. Mr Bashir has not been arrested, and there seems little prospect of him facing trial any time soon.

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