Sudan: Aid Efforts Plundered

Aid Efforts Plundered

August 5, 2006: Lack of security is preventing medical and food aid from reaching refugee camps in Sudan's western Darfur region. In the last two weeks, one aid group had ambulances attacked and one medical compound robbed. This group has been operating 17 clinics throughout Darfur but expects to close some of them. Because of the attacks on convoys and robberies on the roads, mobile clinics no longer travel to villages in Darfur. Over the last month several NGOs have reported an increase in incidents. Many of the NGOs are the first to learn of attacks on villages from survivors who manage to make it to the NGOs' medical facilities. That's why news of attacks literally "moves on foot" -- and the journalists and government sources pick up the reports from refugees and doctors, often days (or weeks) after an attack.

The UN wants a force of at least 24,000 troops in Darfur, but the government continues to resist. The African Union has 7000 peacekeepers in Darfur.

August 3, 2006: The government again rejected a UN-led peacekeeping mission for Darfur. A government spokesman said that a UN-led force would violate the Darfur peace deal of May 5, 2006 (now called in some news releases the Darfur Peace Agreement, or DPA).

In eastern Sudan, an official government delegation from Eritrea met in the Sudanese town of Kassala. Eritrea has agreed to "monitor" the ceasefire it helped broker between the Sudan government and the Eastern Front rebel group. The meeting discussed some details of the ceasefire (officially signed on June 19). Neither Eastern Front guerrillas nor the Sudanese military can move from positions they held prior to the ceasefire. Eritrean military observers will man five observation points in the region to insure the ceasefire conditions are met. Eritrea wants to improve ties with Sudan as a way of putting pressure on Eritrea's main enemy, Ethiopia.

August 1, 2006: A government sponsored militia force in Darfur attacked a Darfur rebel group in North Darfur State. The rebel group was apparently from a faction that did not sign the May 5 Darfur peace agreement. One report said that the Sudan Liberation Army/Minni Minawi faction (which did sign the peace agreement) also fought with the rebel group. The Ceasefire Commission in Darfur is looking into reports that a Sudan Air Force Antonov transport-bomber (an Antonov transport rigged to carry bombs) bombed the village of Hassan (North Darfur State) sometime in late July.