Sudan: Well Meaning War Mongering

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July 13, 2009: The UN intends to have the Darfur peacekeeping force (UNAMID) at full strength by the end of 2009. Full-strength is around 26,000 troops and police. Originally UNAMID intended to have at least 18,000 peacekeepers deployed by late 2008 and have 26,000 by mid-2009. Nations have been slow to commit troops and provide essential equipment.

July 10, 2009: A member of South Sudan's parliament accused the national government  of supplying arms to the Ugandan Lords Resistance Army (LRA). The legislator claimed the arms were airdropped to LRA rebels in south Sudan.

July 7, 2009: Armed rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have been seen in the big Oure Cassoni refugee camp in Darfur. A UN report on this confirms what everyone knows. The Sudanese government has made the allegation several times, that rebels make use of refugee camp facilities. This is a constant problem, especially when a national government  is waging a massive ethnic cleansing campaign where civilians are driven out of their homes and farmers off their land by design. International aid groups establish refugee centers to help the displaced. Then rebels (fighting the national government) infiltrate the camps. The recent UN reports aren't reports about infiltration. JEM fighters, in vehicles, have been seen driving through a refugee camp. That's bold. It's also the kind of overt action that the government uses to "legitimize" a militia attack on a refugee camp. The rebels rarely get killed, but the refugees die in the crossfire.

July 3, 2009: Gunmen kidnapped two aid workers in Kutum, North Darfur.

The JEM Darfur rebel group and Sudan's opposition UMMA political party announced that they have been holding discussions. JEM and UMMA are now calling for a new "transitional national government" in Sudan. The new government would be in power through the 2010 elections. However, the government announced on June 30 that the national elections in 2010 will be delayed. The government announcement said the elections are now scheduled for April 2010. The elections had been scheduled for February 2010 (and were originally scheduled for July 2009). President Omar al-Bashir (who is under indictment for war crimes by the International Criminal Court) has indicated he will run for re-election.

July 1, 2009: The Government of South Sudan (GOSS) said that in late June a delegation from the GOSS parliament (the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly) visited Egypt and asked the Egyptian government to use its influence with the national Sudan government to help keep Sudan unified and to keep the North-South peace agreement (Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005) from shattering. Egypt, the land of the Nile, has taken an interest in what happens upstream on the Blue and White Niles since the time of the pharaohs.

June 29, 2009: The Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) accused the government of bombing the village of Hashaba (North Darfur state) and killing eight civilians.

 

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