5/15/08 - Northern, southern Sudanese soldiers clashe in Abyei, 4 killed

May 14, 2008 (ABYEI, Sudan) — South Sudanese former rebels fought northern government forces on Wednesday in the disputed oil-rich Abyei region, killing up to four people and sending hundreds fleeing, south Sudanese and U.N. officials said. Fighting began near the town of Abyei on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday heavy exchanges of machine gun and mortar fire could be heard from a U.N. base just outside the town in the north-south border zone, witnesses (...read more...)

5/15/08 - Two Muslim US lawmakers want Washington help to stop Darfur violence

May 14, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — Congress’ two Muslim members urged the U.S. government on Wednesday to lead efforts to end the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, where more than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced. Reps. Keith Ellison and Andre Carson joined other black Democratic lawmakers making that call at a "Muslim Voices for Darfur" news conference Wednesday. Sudan is a predominantly Muslim nation. Ellison, a freshman lawma(...read more...)

5/13/08 - Watchdog says concerned by mass arrests after rebel attack

May 12, 2008 (NEW YORK) – Human Rights Watch raised concern and fears over mass arrests in Khartoum of perceived supporters of a Darfur rebel group and other political opponents. The arrests by Sudanese security forces of more than 100 people followed an attack on Sudan’s capital by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on May 10, 2008 that left dozens of civilians dead or severely injured. “The Sudanese government may be systematically rounding up(...read more...)

5/12/08 - Sudan shooting after rebel raid

Shooting has been heard in two separate parts of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, following a raid by Darfur rebels. Details are sketchy - in one incident a lot of shooting was heard and roads closed after security forces pursued a small group of suspected rebels. There was also at least one arrest near the US embassy. Sudan's Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi has been arrested and accused of links to the rebels, who on Saturday came close to (...read more...)

5/10/08 - Darfur envoys say alarmed by surge of violence in Darfur

May 9, 2008 (KHARTOUM) --- Darfur peace envoys today expressed concerns over military escalation in Darfur between the Sudanese army and the Justice and equality Movement. They said this rise of violence can only cause more suffering to civilians. The United Nations and African Union Special Envoys for Darfur, Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim are "alarmed and deeply troubled" by the recent military escalation between Sudanese army and the rebel JEM. (...read more...)

5/10/08 - UN chief condemns JEM attack in Khartoum

May 10, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon condemned today attack by the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) forces that has broken out on the outskirts of the Sudanese capital Khartoum. “condemns strongly the use of armed force and military means by JEM for the achievement of political ends and calls for an immediate cessation of fighting and a renewed commitment to a peaceful resolution of outstanding issues,”. Ban said(...read more...)

5/9/08 - Sudan’s Janjaweed force thousands of Chadians out of villages

May 8, 2008 (GOUROUNKOUN, Chad) — Chadian village elders have told how how the feared Janjaweed Arab militia from Sudan and other bandits have forced thousands of people from their villages and into refugee camps. "They killed us. We couldn’t go back home," Adoum Moursal, a village chief, told EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana during a visit to the volatile border region. "We are cattle raisers, traders, farmers, and they came and raped our wom(...read more...)

5/8/08 - US to help equip Rwandans for Darfur peacekeeping

May 8, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — The United States is helping to equip Rwandan troops who will be heading to Darfur and is trying to find helicopters for the peacekeeping force in the conflict-wracked region, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan said Wednesday. A joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force took over duties in Darfur in January from a beleaguered AU force to try to stem the violence. But it only has about 7,500 troops and fewer than 2,000 polic(...read more...)

5/7/08 - Sudan donors, Khartoum vow work for unity

May 6, 2008 (OSLO) — Rich donor states and the government of Sudan pledged on Tuesday to support further implementation of a 2005 north-south peace treaty and to work to prevent the east African nation from breaking apart. Sudan is seeking $6 billion in funding for 2008-2011 at a three-day donors conference in the Norwegian capital. The Sudan consortium has met yearly since the 2005 peace deal ended Africa’s longest civil war, though upheaval continu(...read more...)

5/6/08 - Sudan seeks $6 bln at Oslo donors’ meeting

May 5, 2008 (OSLO) — Sudan will ask donor nations meeting this week for $6 billion over the next three years to help rebuild Africa’s largest nation after decades of civil wars, and host nation Norway said it would provide nearly $500 million. The Sudan consortium, which began meeting on Monday, has met yearly since a 2005 north-south peace deal ended Africa’s longest civil war. It is the stage for richer nations to show their support for maintaining(...read more...)

5/6/08 - Senior UN relief official urges immediate access to wounded in North Darfur

Voicing her deep concern about the reported attacks on villages in North Darfur, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan has called for immediate access to the affected areas to provide assistance and medical evacuation for the injured. In Oslo for the Sudan Consortium, which is evaluating progress in implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between North and South Sudan, Ameerah Haq joined delegate after delegate in calling for(...read more...)

5/5/08 - 14 killed in Darfur following Sudanese army aerial attacks - Rebels

May 4, 2008 (LONDON) — Sudanese army yesterday killed 14 civilians during a bombardment of two areas in North Darfur, Justice and Equality Movement said today. Ahmed Hussein Adam, JEM spokesperson told Sudan Tribune that an Antonov of the Sudanese army killed 11 civilians in Shugag Karo area in North Darfur state and wounded 4 child and 2 women. He further said this aerial attack occurred on the market day of the area. According to the rebel official(...read more...)

5/4/08 - Mia Farrow urges China to help stop Darfur killings

May 2, 2008 (HONG KONG) — Actress Mia Farrow urged Beijing on Friday to help stop the killings in Sudan’s western Darfur region, staging a peaceful, one-woman protest on the sidelines of the Hong Kong leg of the Olympic torch relay. The 63-year-old actress held aloft her own torch, which she said honored victims of genocide, near Hong Kong’s government headquarters - away from the Olympic torch route. "As the games approach, China has the opportunity(...read more...)

5/3/08 - Peacekeeping mission says Sudan attacked Darfur civilians

May 2, 2008 (EL FASHER) – The hybrid peacekeeping mission said today that it had evacuated wounded civilians following Sudanese army air strikes in North Darfur. The UNAMID further condemned attacks against civilians, urging all parties to adhere to international humanitarian laws, which prohibit military attacks against civilians. It added that a fact finding mission is probing the attacks on the ground. The peacekeeping mission said that Sudan Libe(...read more...)

5/2/08 - US special envoy downplays talk of imminent normalization with Sudan

By Wasil Ali May 01, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — The US special envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson downplayed the possibility of a quick normalization in relations between Washington and Khartoum. Williamson told a group of Darfur activists in a conference call sponsored by Enough Project from Washington that he does not foresee improvement of ties with Sudan "during his tenure". Last February the Sudanese foreign minister Deng Alor told reporters that he (...read more...)

5/1/08 - Violence forces 12,000 refugees to flee in South Darfur

April 30, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Around 12,000 civilians fled their homes following an outbreak of fighting in South Darfur according to the spokesperson of displaced and refugees in the region. Hussein Abu-Sharati told Sudan Tribune that the freshly displaced civilians were made up of 2,700 families who arrived at the Kalma camp in south Darfur. He said that fighting erupted between forces loyal to Sudan’s senior presidential assistant Minni Arcua Minnawi a(...read more...)

5/1/08 - Darfur peacekeepers battalions to start arriving in June

April 30, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Two battalions to reinforce Darfur’s fledgling U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission will arrive in June, the first step to deploying 80 percent of the force by the end of the year, the head of mission said on Wednesday. Four months after assuming peacekeeping responsibilities in Sudan’s lawless west, suffering from five years of violence Washington calls genocide, one third of the force strength has worked overtime but fai(...read more...)

4/29/08 - Darfur IDPs are not counted in Sudan census - Official

April 28, 2008 (EL-GENEINA) – A Sudanese official stated that Internally Displaced Persons would not be counted during the ongoing census operations due to their opposition to the fifth national census. Darfur IDP’s in the three states of the troubled Darfur staged protests during the last week to show their opposition to the census operations and the next year general elections. They demand the adjournment of the process till the signing of a peace agr(...read more...)

4/28/08 - Darfur peacekeeping mission condemns murder of WFP driver

April 27, 2008 (EL FASHER) – The UN-African Union hybrid peacekeeping force (UNAMID) condemned today the killing of a UN WFP driver in South Darfur last week. "UNAMID is deeply shocked and profoundly disturbed by the cold-blooded murder of Mohamed Makki El Rasheed, a truck driver working for United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday 21 April 2008." Said a statement issed by UNAMID today. The perpetrators killed Makki after he had returned t(...read more...)

4/26/08 - ICC urges global pressure on Sudan to hand over Darfur crimes suspects

April 25, 2008 (THE HAGUE) — The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday called for global pressure on Sudan to hand over two Darfur war crimes suspects for trial. Almost one year after the ICC issued arrest warrants for Sudan’s secretary of state for humanitarian affairs Ahmed Harun and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb, Khartoum didn’t give sign of cooperation with the international justice over their case. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo(...read more...)

4/26/08 - Norway to host Sudan donor conference in May

April 25, 2008 (OSLO) — Oslo will host a conference in May to generate pledges of support for the further reconstruction and development of southern Sudan, Norway announced today. The meeting was initially scheduled to be held in Paris. The World Bank, the United Nations, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) organised the first international donor conference on Sudan in April 2005. On March 9-10, 2006, the second Sudan Consortium conference was hel(...read more...)

4/25/08 - Sudan disputes UN figure of 300,000 dead in Darfur

April 24, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — A Sudanese presidential aide challenged a new U.N. assessment that as many as 300,000 people have died in the 5-year-old Darfur conflict, saying Thursday the figures were unfounded and intended to put political pressure on the government. John Holmes, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, gave a grim report on Darfur to the Security Council this week, estimating as many as 300,000 persons have been killed up f(...read more...)

4/24/08 - US, UN say Darfur peacekeepers need water

April 23, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — U.S. and United Nations officials said Wednesday that peacekeepers in the Darfur region of Sudan are limited by some of the factors feeding the conflict — problems over access to land and water. The U.N. is trying to field a joint U.N.-African Union force agreed to by Sudan. But so far only about 9,000 of the authorized 26,000 peacekeepers have been deployed. Jane Holl Lute, a senior U.N. official who overseas the organi(...read more...)

4/22/08 - South Sudan to demobilise troops but fears violence

April 21, 2008 (JUBA) — South Sudan hopes to begin the long delayed demobilisation of tens of thousands of former rebel fighters in May but many could return to violence without jobs or enough money, a government official said on Monday. South Sudan’s army — which one U.N. official estimates at about 140,000 strong — is a massive strain on the budget of the semi-autonomous region, struggling to build a nation from the war ruined but mineral rich south. (...read more...)

4/20/08 - Darfur - UN, African Union Envoys Hold Fresh Talks With Leaders of Rebel Groups

UN News Service (New York) The United Nations and African Union envoys spearheading efforts to devise a durable political settlement to the five-year conflict in Darfur have held several days of talks in the Sudanese region with representatives of the groups and movements that have not signed previous peace accords. Jan Eliasson of the UN and Salim Ahmed Salim of the AU met with Khalil Ibrahim, the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), in(...read more...)

4/20/08 - Climate change driving Darfur crisis - Sarkozy

April 18, 2008 (PARIS) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the world’s biggest carbon polluters Friday that global warming was becoming a driver of hunger, unrest and conflict, with the war in Darfur a concrete example. "Climate change is already having a considerable impact on security," Sarkozy said in a speech to ministers from 16 economies that together account for 80% of greenhouse-gas emissions. Water scarcity and rivalry for farmland and f(...read more...)

4/20/08 - 8000 Sudanese refugees remain out of Chad camps

April 19 2008 (GENEVA) — About 8,000 Sudanese remain scattered in a handful of villages along the volatile border with Chad, more than two months after a major round of fighting erupted in West Darfur, the UNHCR said Friday. United Nations refugee agency said it has been able to transfer some 5,400 people to two camps it runs in eastern Chad, despite the logistical challenges posed by the continuing insecurity and the remoteness of the region. Most o(...read more...)

4/19/08 - Thousands of Refugees From Darfur Remain Along Volatile Border - UN Agency

UN News Service (New York) About 8,000 Sudanese remain scattered in a handful of villages along the volatile border with Chad, more than two months after a major round of fighting erupted in West Darfur, the United Nations refugee agency reported today. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Ron Redmond told journalists in Geneva that the agency has been able to transfer some 5,400 people to two camps it runs in eastern Chad, despite t(...read more...)

4/19/08 - 14 Police Officers Leave for Darfur

From The Daily Observer (Banjul),By Hatab Fadera A contingent of fourteen police officers of The Gambia Police Force will leave Banjul today, Friday, April 18 to the Sudanese trouble region of Darfur under the United Nations peacekeeping mission. The fourteen will join one hundred Gambian police peace keepers who are currently in Darfur. In his words of wisdom during a farewell ceremony yeaserday at the police headquarters in Banjul, police Commi(...read more...)

4/18/08 - UN reduces Darfur food supplies due to banditry

April 17, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The UN World Food Programme announced today that it will cut monthly food supply in Darfur starting from next May, because of attack by armed bandits against its trucks. In May, the cereal ration will be cut in half to 225 grams per person per day, pulses will be cut in half to 30 grams and sugar by half to 15 grams. This will reduce the daily kilocalorie value of the ration by 40 per cent (down to 1,242 k/cal per day from th(...read more...)

4/17/08 - Sudanese security stops five private papers publishing

April 16, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese authorities prevented five privately owned newspapers from publishing on Wednesday, the latest in a wave of censorship, journalists said. Al-Sudani, al-Ahdath, Ajras al-Huriya, al-Rai al-Shaab and the English language The Citizen paper were the latest targets of renewed censorship which opposition political parties say violates the constitution. Sudan’s radio and television are state controlled but the private pap(...read more...)

4/15/08 - Darfur athletes train on as Olympic row rages

April 14, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — A world away from the political rows over China and the Olympic Games, a young Darfuri man crouches down at the start of a cracked and pitted running track in the capital of Sudan. He is Nagmeldin Ali Abubakr, a 21-year-old from Nyala in southern Darfur, and one of Sudan’s main medal hopes for the Beijing Games. Western celebrities and activists have been pushing for Olympic boycotts and protests against China for its alle(...read more...)

4/14/08 - Sudan president and SPLM chairman resolve census row

April 13, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir and his First Vice President Salva Kiir agreed to resume the census process next week Al Jazeera television reported on Monday. The Arabic news channel broadcasting from Qatar said Al-Bashir and Kiir decided in a meeting that the census should proceed all over Sudan including the south starting April 22nd. However it was not clear when or where the meeting took place. It was wid(...read more...)

4/13/08 - Britain proposes to host Darfur peace talks

April 12, 2008 (LONDON) — The British Prime Minister has proposed to host peace talks between Sudanese government and rebel groups in order to end the five year civil war in western Sudan. According to information disseminated by the office of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, British officials were in contact with the Sudanese officials and rebel groups to offer the hosting of peace talks "as soon as practicable". A Downing Street spokesman said: "Britai(...read more...)

4/13/08 - 3,000 Darfurian refugees homeless following fire in Chad camp

3,000 Darfurian refugees homeless following fire in Chad camp April 11, 2008 (ABECHE, Chad) –- A fire swept through part of the remote Goz Amer refugee camp in eastern Chad on Friday, leaving some 3,000 Darfurian refugees homeless, the UNHCR reported. 10 people were slightly injured, and many refugees lost all their food rations and meagre belongings. The cause of the midday blaze was believed to be an untended cooking fire which spread rapidly, fann(...read more...)

4/8/08 - Sudan’s FM, Joint envoy discuss deployment of Darfur peacekeepers

April 8, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese Foreign Minister Deng Alor discussed on Tuesday with the head of Darfur joint mission Rodolphe Adada, the status of deployment of United Nations- African Union peacekeeping troops in the war-torn region of Darfur. Adada attributed the current delay in the deployment to logistical difficulties relating to construction of the necessary infrastructures before the deployment of the troops. "UNAMID is providing the nece(...read more...)

4/7/08 - Govt has failed to help South Sudan development - Turabi

April 7, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s government has failed to do enough to help the south develop since a civil war and risks renewed fighting if it does not spend more there, Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi said on Monday. Turabi, who has remained influential despite a bitter split with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 1999, said after holding his Popular Congress party’s convention in the south that there was a drastic lack of development (...read more...)

4/6/08 - EU criticizes Sudan for refusing to extradite war crimes suspects

April 05, 2008 (BRUSSELS) — The European Union (EU) issued a statement this week condemning the Sudanese government for not handing over war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court (ICC). “The EU expresses its profound dismay with the Government of Sudan’s continued failure to comply with its obligations under UNSC Resolution 1593 including its refusal to arrest and surrender these men to the ICC for prosecution, much less allow the ICC to q(...read more...)

4/5/08 - UN chief says political process crucial to end Darfur crisis

April 4, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — The U.N. chief today said that security situation in the five year war-torn Darfur has deteriorated particularly in West Darfur. However the stressed on the need to accelerate the political settlement process to end this conflict. Some 4.27 million civilians, including 2.45 million internally displaced, continue to suffer. As a result of ongoing attacks by armed forces and groups, more than 100,000 civilians have been fo(...read more...)

4/2/08 - Sudan confirms release of Darfur war crimes suspect indicted by ICC

By Wasil Ali April 1, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — The Sudanese government today confirmed that it had freed a militia leader indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for lack of evidence. The judges of the ICC issued their first arrest warrants for suspects accused of war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region in early May. The warrants were issued for Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs, and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Ra(...read more...)

3/31/08 - ICC monitoring movements of Darfur war crimes suspect

March 30, 2008 (THE HAGUE) — The International Criminal Court (ICC) is monitoring the activities of a Darfur war crime suspect within Sudan, a senior court official said. The prosecutor of the ICC Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in prepared remarks at the twelfth diplomatic briefing that his office is working with unspecified countries to trace the whereabouts of Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs. “RFA’s on the tracing of Haroun and on (...read more...)

3/30/08 - Sudan’s Bashir paints rosy picture of humanitarian situation in Darfur

March 29, 2008 (DAMASCUS) — Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Saturday painted a rosy picture of the humanitarian situation in Darfur saying that Darfur displaced have started voluntarily to regain their villages. Addressing the opening session of Arab summit in the Syrian capital al-Bashir said more that 350 thousand IDPs have returned to their villages. He pointed out that the Sudanese government is now working to enforce the reconstruction progr(...read more...)

3/29/08 - 200,000 deaths in Darfur is too low to be true - former UN relief chief

March 28, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — How many people have died in Darfur? Two years ago, the U.N. estimated 200,000. But the man who gave that figure now says it’s far too low to be accurate. Sudan has long said it’s way too high. A new mortality survey might settle the question, but the U.N. has no plans for one — they say they are too busy trying to help the living. Activist groups say Sudan’s government doesn’t want one. Former U.N. humanitarian chie(...read more...)

3/27/08 - Attacks against aid workers put Darfur relief operations at risk - UN

March 26, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – Intolerable attacks against aid workers in Sudan’s Darfur jeopardize vital humanitarian operations in the war-wracked region, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator said today. In a statement released in Khartoum, Ameerah Haq said the humanitarian community in Sudan condemns all acts of violence taking place in Darfur, where rebels have been fighting Government forces and allied militia since 2003. The st(...read more...)

3/22/08 - Fresh fighting breaks out in Sudan North-South border region

March 21, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — There has been new reports of fighting between former southern Sudanese rebels and armed tribesman in the oil rich border region. The Al-Sahafa daily said that the deadly clashes broke out between the Sudan people Liberation Army (SPLA) and the cattle-herding Misseriya tribes around 20 kilometers east of the Heglig oil field. The newspaper said that the fighting claimed 3 members of the Misseriya tribe but said that there (...read more...)

3/21/08 - Hybrid mission says protection of Darfur civilians is a priority

March 20, 2008 (EL FASHER) – Darfur hybrid peacekeeping mission affirmed today that the protection of civilians in the war-torn region is the priority of its troops. UNAMID Deputy Joint Special Representative, Henry Anyidoho, traveled to Silea in West Darfur to assess the security situation on the ground and to look at the possibility of UNAMID deployment in the area. "The protection of civilians is our priority," said the Deputy Joint Special Repres(...read more...)

3/16/08 - UN continues to move Darfur refugees inside Chad

March 15 2008 (GENEVA) — The United Nations refugee agency continues to move thousands of civilians who fled recent air and ground attacks against towns in West Darfur further inside their neighbouring country. “The constantly changing security situation regularly affects our relocation operation,” Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said Firday in Geneva. Heavy explosions are frequently heard coming from the border are(...read more...)

3/16/08 - Aid group goes nationwide

By Devon HaynieThe Journal GazetteSix thousand Darfuri children will go to school this year thanks to a development organization that recently called Fort Wayne home. The Darfur Peace and Development Organization, dedicated to improving the situation in western Sudan, relocated from Fort Wayne to Washington, D.C., in June 2007. Since its arrival in the capital, its founder says, the group has been busy expanding its projects to provide more security and(...read more...)

3/15/08 - Darfur mediators to hold a meeting without Sudanese parties

March 14, 2008 (GENEVA) — The top U.N. and African Union envoys to Darfur will lead talks on the stricken region in Geneva next week, but neither Sudan nor any of the rebel groups will attend, a diplomatic source said Friday. AU envoy Salim Ahmed Salim and his U.N. counterpart Jan Eliasson "did not invite Sudan, because they could not secure the presence of the rebel groups in Geneva," the source told AFP. The U.N. said the talks are aimed at reachin(...read more...)

3/14/08 - Headache delayed Sudan-Chad pact due on Thursday

By Pascal Fletcher DAKAR (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was due to attend a rescheduled peace accord signing with Chad's President Idriss Deby on Thursday after failing to show up on Wednesday and telling mediators he had a headache. The mediators hope the non-aggression pact will end years of hostility between Sudan and Chad that has often brought the two oil-producing neighbours close to all-out war. Senegalese President Abdo(...read more...)

3/13/08 - Sudan slams US human rights report

March 12, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government responded angrily to the annual report on human rights which called the record of the east African nation “horrific”. Ali Al-Sadig told reporters that the US State Department’s list of top human rights violators is a “political classification which does not reflect the facts on the ground”. "Sudan’s human rights record remained horrific, with continued reports of extrajudicial killings, torture, bea(...read more...)

3/12/08 - Sudan UN envoy says military campaign in Darfur “will continue”

March 11, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — A senior Sudanese official said that military operations will continue in Darfur “as long as rebels continue to threaten civilians”. Sudan’s U.N. ambassador Abdel-Mahmood Mohamad told reporters today that “it is our responsibility to protect our own people. We will continue to do that”. Mohamad also condemned statements by the US envoy in which he criticized the “foot dragging” by Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Ba(...read more...)

3/10/08 - UN chief hails creation of group backing Darfur hybrid force

March 7, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday hailed the creation of an international group to back the deployment of the joint UN-African Union peace force in Sudan’s Darfur region and urged member states to contribute needed assets. He welcomed the establishment of "Friends of Unamid," a reference to the joint UN-AU peacekeeping force. The group’s first meeting was convened Thursday in New York by the United States and Canada. (...read more...)

3/8/08 - Sudan puts Darfur death toll at 10,000

A Sudanese senior official claims that the death toll in Darfur conflict is estimated at 10,000, far fewer than the widely reported 200,000. Sudanese presidential adviser Nafie Ali Nafie, who is currently in Tokyo holding talks with Japanese officials, lashed out at the West for distorting the reality. "Our estimate is not more than 10,000, quite a different number from 200,000,'' Nafie said at a press conference in Tokyo on Friday. The de(...read more...)

2/29/08 - Press Release about our Schools Project

For Immediate Release Darfur Peace and Development Organization Contact: Susan Burgess-Lent 415-686-8819 Karri DeSelm 260-348-8931 29 February 2008 Approximately 650,000 children - half of all children in Darfur - do not receive an education. Providing educational assistance has been a primary focus of Darfur Peace and Development Organization (DPDO) for the last three years. DPDO began supporting the(...read more...)

2/29/08 - Hundreds of Thousands of Darfur Children Not in School

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks Nairobi About 650,000 or half of all children in Darfur do not receive an education, despite efforts by various organisations to provide schooling in camps and towns across the western Sudanese region, an international NGO said. "Education is the foundation for economically viable and more peaceful societies. But the international community has been loath to fund schooling in conflict situations," Char(...read more...)

2/26/08 - Washington demands Darfur resolution before to normalize ties

February 25, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – Washington played down Sudanese optimism for quick normalization of bilateral ties between the two country asking once again to end Darfur conflict before. Following a meeting on Monday with the visiting news US envoy, Sudanese foreign minister said he expects to normalize relations with Washington within 4-6 months after more than a decade under U.S. sanctions. In Washington, however, the State Department said there wa(...read more...)

2/25/08 - China provides more humanitarian aid to Darfur

February 25, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The Chinese government’s special representative for Darfur, Liu Guijin, Monday pledged China will provide more humanitarian assistance to people in Sudan’s western region of Darfur. Our government is preparing a new budget and more humanitarian assistance will be forced forward," Liu said at a handover ceremony of an aid package of 20 million Chinese yuan (2.8 million U.S. dollars). "We just want to send signals to Suda(...read more...)

2/25/08 - ICC prosecutor to investigate senior Sudanese officials

February 24, 2008 (THE HAGUE) — Nine months after the first arrest warrants were issued for those suspected of being behind atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region, the chief international prosecutor believes he has the masterminds in his sights. International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has vowed to target the most senior people behind the violence and says that peace will only be possible in troubled Darfur if arrests are made and those r(...read more...)

2/25/08 - Displaced Darfurians Moving to New Camp, Others Flee to Chad

UN News Service (New York) As violence continues to rage in Sudan's Darfur region, a group of 500 villagers who fled their homes two weeks ago will find refuge at a newly opened camp outside of El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, the United Nations refugee agency announced today. "The group, many of whom fled the village of Saraf Jedad to Armankul earlier this year, are part of a larger group of 222 families - some 1,000 people - who were di(...read more...)

2/23/08 - RACE AGAINST TIME

In May 2005, while serving as President Bush's special envoy to Sudan, I visited Mornei, a displaced persons camp in western Darfur that now houses some 70,000 people beneath makeshift plastic shelters. I had come to meet with the local tribal leaders, hear their stories and assess the effectiveness of the humanitarian aid effort. Instead, I witnessed an outbreak of violence that lingers in my memory as I try to think about how the United States can help(...read more...)

2/23/08 - China’s diplomatic effort on Darfur

By James Blitz in London China has this week gone on a diplomatic offensive to persuade western public opinion that it is working hard to try to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, suggesting claims that Beijing is a major arms exporter to Sudan are an “exaggeration.“ In the aftermath of Steven Spielberg’s decision last week to quit as an artistic director to the Beijing Olympics over China’s policy of Darfur, a senior Chinese diplomat has been (...read more...)

2/21/08 - Worsening Situation in West Darfur Jeopardizes Aid Efforts - UN Report

UN News Service (New York) The security situation in West Darfur has deteriorated so sharply in the past two months that the United Nations' efforts to bring humanitarian relief to those in need is being severely undermined, a new UN report says, calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities and warning that the region needs many more peacekeepers. The latest report of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping missi(...read more...)

2/21/08 - Bombing Blocks Access to New Refugees

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks Dakar The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) is warning that its teams in eastern Chad that have been providing assistance to 10,000 newly arrived refugees from Sudan's West Darfur region have been forced to withdraw because of aerial bombing across the border, close to where the refugees are located. "Aerial bombing overnight and this morning in West Darfur, Sudan, close to the border with Chad, has forced UNHCR t(...read more...)

2/21/08 - Four killed during Sudan air strike in Darfur’s Jebel Moun

February 18, 2008 (PARIS) — Four people are killed by Sudanese military aircraft during an aerial raid against the SLM controlled area of Jebel Moun in west Darfur, a Darfur rebel commander told Sudan Tribune. A displaced Sudanese man looks at his burnt-down house after militiamen burnt the Sereaf village, southwest of Al Genenia, in west Darfur along the Sudan Chad border, April 22, 2005. (Reuters).The rebel stronghold of Jebel Moun, in West Darfur is (...read more...)

2/20/08 - UN chief paints grim picture for Darfur crisis and troops deployment

Februay 20, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Sudanese government and all rebel groups on Wednesday to agree to a cease-fire in Darfur, saying deteriorating security is undermining efforts to help thousands of civilians caught in an upsurge in fighting. Ban Ki-Moon In his monthly report to the Security Council, Ban singled out attacks in West Darfur, which borders Chad. He also noted heightened tensions in camps for the dis(...read more...)

2/19/08 - New U.N. force seeks to protect Darfur women from rape

February 18, 2008 (KALMA) — U.N. peacekeepers in armored vehicles and pickup trucks whizzed through this Darfur refugee camp, and a dozen women came to meet them, bringing their donkeys, water rations and homemade axes. It’s time for one of the refugees’ most perilous tasks: collecting firewood. Countless refugee women have been assaulted or raped, mostly by Arab janjaweed militiamen, when they leave the relative safety of their camps to gather wood out(...read more...)

2/19/08 - Darfur villagers flee after last week offensive

February 18, 2008 (KONDOBE) — Three elderly Darfuri men hack away at a pile of logs, struggling to build a new home in Kondobe town more than a week after they fled their village to escape government attacks and militia looting. They had hoped to return after the fighting subsided. But they can still hear shooting day and night and could no longer suffer the cramped arrangements with 11 people in a tiny hut. "We want to return to Bir Dagaig (village)(...read more...)

2/19/08 - China speaks out on UN, AU role in Darfur

February 13, 2008, 09:45 By Manelisi Dubase The United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU)have been warned that unless they act to end the on-going crisis in Darfur, they might risk being seen as irrelevant by the people of Africa. The warning by US congressmen, Hollywood stars and Darfurians comes as President Bush prepares to meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, immediately before his departure for the continent. The activists are trying t(...read more...)

2/18/08 - "Hybrids" take back night in dangerous Darfur camps

February 17, 208 (KRINDING CAMP) — The soothing tones of West Indian reggae stopped abruptly and the U.N.-African Union peacekeepers left their vehicles to face a machine gun pointed at them by a Sudanese soldier crouched in a trench. But as more white peacekeeping vehicles emerged from the darkness at the army checkpoint outside West Darfur’s capital el-Geneina the Sudanese soldiers, heads wrapped in cloth to shield them from the harsh sandy wind, brok(...read more...)

2/17/08 - UN must send more troops to Darfur fast - commander

February 16, 2008 (EL-GENEINA) — The United Nations must deploy more troops quickly in west Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, even without their full equipment, or risk losing Darfuris’ trust, a senior U.N. commander said on Saturday. The most important first step for the U.N.-funded peacekeeping mission is to give displaced Darfuris confidence that the troops will protect them, said Balla Keita, the U.N.-AU commander of West Darfur, the most volatile par(...read more...)

2/17/08 - China makes constant efforts to resolve crisis in Darfur - envoy

Februray 16, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The Chinese government has made unremitting efforts to help resolve the crisis in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, said Chinese Ambassador to Sudan Li Chengwen in an interview with Xinhua reporter based here on Saturday. Li’s statement came as a response to Hollywood movie director Steven Spielberg’s action of withdrawal from 2008 Beijing Olympics, linking the Games to the nation’s involvement in Sudan. Spielberg on We(...read more...)

2/17/08 - UN Refugee Agency Alarmed After Armed Group Prevents Relocation of Darfurians

UN News Service (New York) Unidentified gunmen today blocked attempts by the United Nations refugee agency to move 179 Darfurian families away from the volatile border region and into formal camps in eastern Chad, sparking concern among humanitarian officials. The men gave no reason for blocking the relocation when staff with UN High Commissioner for Refugees and its aid partners attempted on Tuesday to begin boarding the refugees on trucks bound for (...read more...)

2/16/08 - Hundreds of Children Missing After Darfur Attack

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks Several days after Sudanese government-backed militia attacked villages in West Darfur, hundreds of children remain unaccounted for, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said. "There are an unknown number of children aged 12-18 who are missing, especially boys. Nobody knows what has happened to these children," Naqibullah Safi, head of UNICEF for West Darfur said. Initial reports suggested that up to(...read more...)

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