Sudan under growing international pressure over Darfur
by Hassen Zenati
CAIRO, June 16 (AFP) — The international community is stepping up pressure on the Sudanese government to open up the war-torn western region of Darfur to aid agencies and show more determination in resolving the 16-month-old conflict raging on there.
On Monday, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur — where Khartoum’s forces and allied Arab militia have been accused of massive human rights abuses in fighting an armed rebellion — required immediate attention.
“And the world must insist that the Sudanese authorities neutralize and disarm the militia, who continue to terrorize the population. They must also allow humanitarian supplies,” he said
The UN, United States and humanitarian agencies have been urging the Khartoum government for the past several weeks to allow humanitarian agencies unimpeded access to the war-ravaged region.
Non-governmental organizations in Khartoum say the pressure is paying off and that since May 24, bureaucratic and other forms of restrictions have been eased.
But a different type of war appears to be brewing between Khartoum and the two main rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
Each side has been accusing the other of violating an April 8 ceasefire deal and obstructing the delivery of much-needed humanitarian supplies to the people of Darfur, who aid agencies say stand on the brink of starvation.
During a recent visit to Cairo, Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha accused the international media of deliberately magnifying the scale of the humanitarian problem in the region.
He also claimed that the conflict was fabricated by the West.
Despite a lull in military operations, violence against the civilian population continues, locals told United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) director Carol Bellamy during her two-day tour of camps for displaced persons in Darfur.
The ceasefire calls for the deployment of up to 120 observers in Darfur to be led by the African Union.
The European Union has allocated 12 million euros (14.5 million dollars) to help fund the mission following an appeal from the AU.
“The funding will support the rapid deployment and operations of an AU-led observer mission that will monitor the implementation of the recent cease-fire agreement in Darfur,” the EU said.
The AU has already set up mission headquarters in al-Fashir, in the northern part of Darfur, but the actual mission of monitoring the ceasefire between rebels and the Khartoum government with its allied militia has yet to begin.
On June 2, Khartoum said some 600 rebels attacked government forces stationed at Ain Saro in northern Darfur in volition of the truce.
On June 4, the rebels accused the Sudanese air force of bombing a market in Tabet, northern Darfur, leaving 20 dead.
And on June 14, as the rebels were threatening to scrap the ceasefire deal if the army and militias continued attacking rebel positions, the government accused them of abducting nine civilians, including two women and a baby.
No group has claimed responsibility for seizing the alleged missing civilians and their fate remains unknown.
Earlier this month, the Sudan Media Center, an information outlet with close government ties, held the rebels responsible for the abduction of 16 humanitarian workers, including three foreigners, who were later released unharmed.
The center also said on June 8 that rebels had commandeered nine trucks carrying aid workers.
Meanwhile, following her trip to Darfur, UNICEF’s Bellamy said that a humanitarian disaster was looming in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region and it was a race against time to get aid there before the rainy season sets in.
“As the rainy seasons begins, it is now a race against time to provide children and their families with basic life-saving services such as clean water, sanitation, nutrition, shelter and health care,” she said.
In Geneva, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) appealed for 55.8 million dollars of extra funds to help an estimated 150,000 refugees forced to flee Darfur into neighboring Chad, a figure expected to reach 200,000 by the end of the year unless the conflict is resolved.
Sudanese authorities quoted by the local press Wednesday said the EU had agreed to release 60 million euros already earmarked, half to provide food and half to ensure water supplies, education and health services.
The official Al Anbaa daily also said that Annan would be visiting Sudan in the coming days to see for himself the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur.