Sudanese government ‘plans onslaught’ on Darfur
By Gethin Chamberlain, The Scotsman
LONDON, Dec 18, 2004 — International observers yesterday described the Darfur region of Sudan as “a timebomb waiting to explode” and warned that the Sudanese government is pouring arms and ammunition into the Darfur region in apparent preparation for a major military offensive.
The African Union said that it was a question of when, and not if, fighting would start. The prospect of such an escalation in violence in the region has alarmed aid agencies who are already struggling to cope with the tide of refugees driven from their homes by the fighting.
The situation in Darfur has already been described by the United Nations as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with up to 300,000 people dead and at least 1.8 million driven from their homes, and in recent weeks the situation has deteriorated markedly. Two aid workers with Save the Children were killed earlier this week and there have been increasing reports of violence across the region, in defiance of half-hearted warnings from the UN security council.
But the warning from the African Union suggests that the Sudanese government intends to step up its campaign against rebel forces in Darfur, placing the lives of millions more people at risk.
Nigerian Major-General Festus Okonkwo, attending the African Union-sponsored peace talks in Nigeria, said it was clear from the military build-up over the last two weeks that Khartoum intended to fight on.
“The quantity of arms and ammunition brought into Darfur to meet the present build-up of troops in the region is [so] astronomical that the issue is no longer whether there will be fighting or not, but when fighting will start,” he said.
General Okonkwo, who heads the AU ceasefire monitors in Darfur, said his efforts to mediate had yielded minimal results and the region was now a “timebomb that could explode at any moment”.
He described one co-ordinated attack on the village of Ishma on 11 December by government forces working in concert with Janjaweed militia, who burned and looted eight villages in advance of government troops.
“Some members of the international community have started leaving the region because of the speed and intensity of build-up of forces by the government and the reciprocal build-up by SLA and JEM [rebel groups] in Labado and Mahajiriya, which are seen by many as the main battleground.”
He blamed the Sudan Liberation Army for the attack on the Save the Children.
Yesterday one representative of an aid agency with staff in Darfur said that while people were distracted by Christmas, Darfur could experience a new upsurge in violence that may claim many lives.
“The international community mustn’t take its eye off the steadily deteriorating situation in Darfur,” said the representative, who asked not to be named to avoid reprisals from the Sudanese government, which has already expelled Oxfam’s director in the country.
And Caroline Nursey, Oxfam’s regional director, said: “Foot-dragging by all parties to the conflict must stop and there should be an unequivocal commitment to the peace talks in Abuja.”