Darfur Grows Deadlier
The May Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) between the Sudanese government and several rebel groups has brought anything but peace, as the region is ravaged by escalating violence and crisis. More aid workers were killed in Darfur within two weeks than in the two years previous, marking July as the deadliest month of violence since the conflict began. The latest rise in violence is merely consistent with a year-long trend of growing insecurity, as the UN notes that the number of armed clashes during the first half of 2006 is double the same period of 2005.
"The level of violence being faced by humanitarian aid workers in Darfur is unprecedented," said Manuel da Silva, Humanitarian Coordinator and Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sudan. Nine aid workers were killed and 36 attacks on aid operations were reported in the month of July. Attacks on NGO workers were 7% higher than a year previous and attacks against African Union peacekeepers rose 900%. The result has been an increase in the number of displaced people, with 40,000 more civilians fleeing their homes in the past year. [More on the situation from Refugees International president Kenneth Bacon, just back from Darfur.]
The African Union's 7,000-person force has attempted to keep the peace, but its mission has been "overwhelmed, under-resourced and unable to provide the necessary security or begin to monitor and implement the recent peace agreement," according to the Washington, DC-based pressure group Africa Action. Some observers even note that the AU has appeared to have reduced its efforts to protect civilians since the signing of the DPA. This has led many in the international community (as well as AU officials) to call for a UN peacekeeping effort in place of an AU one. This approach has been vehemently rejected by the Sudanese government, however, which argues that a UN mission would be colonial in nature and have some hidden objective. Others are calling for the United States to take a leading role in using its unique leverage to pressure Sudan's government to accept a UN peacekeeping mission. Africa Action joined faith leaders in Crawford, Texas last week to ask as much of President Bush. In spite of international calls to implement a true ceasefire, the deadlock on Darfur continues as the situation degenerates ever more direly. The conflict has captured the lives of thousands of people, and more than two million civilians have been forced to flee during the three-year conflict as a result of fighting between Sudanese government forces, pro-government militias, and various rebel groups. An end seems not in sight, with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan himself noting that the prospects for an international assistance operation are bleak. In the midst of all this, everyday people continue to struggle to keep Darfur on the agenda of the world's politicians. Through the Save Darfur Coalition, they are lobbying elected officials, educating others, and preparing for rallies in September in Washington, DC, New York, and around the United States. ---------------------------------------- Discover worthy projects to support the people of Darfur through the non-profit Web sites UniversalGiving and GlobalGiving. |
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