Violence, Insecurity, and Human Trafficking in Darfur: The International Community is Committed to a Profoundly False Narrative
Eric Reeves | September 19, 2018 | https://wp.me/p45rOG-2ij
On an almost weekly basis various international actors seeking to accommodate the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime in Khartoum commit to egregious misrepresentations of the realities confronting the people of Darfur and Sudan generally. The interests of these actors vary: the Europeans seem primarily interested in enlisting Khartoum’s assistance in stanching the flow of African migration to the European continent and—at least nominally—working to end human trafficking. The Trump administration in the U.S. continues the policies of the Obama and Bush administration, seeing Sudan primarily through the lens of the putative counter-terrorism cooperation the regime can provide. According to many highly knowledgeable sources, this badly skews U.S. Sudan policy and nets surprisingly little of real value.
The UN and African UN desperately want to call the response to Darfur a success, primarily in the form of the deployment of the UN/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID)—a force that over the past eleven years has failed spectacularly and still cannot halt violence or even secure unfettered access (to a critical area in Central Darfur most recently). The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, going back to the tenure of the expedient Hervé Ladsous (United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, 2011 to 2017), consistently downplayed the level of violence in Darfur and overstated the effectiveness of UNAMID—a way of pushing for the reduction of this extremely expensive peacekeeping mission.
Current UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Gwi-Yeop Son, recently declared that there has been “significant” improvement in security in Darfur, echoing the comments of North Darfur governor Mohamed Beraima Hassab al-Nabi: “lawlessness situation has come to an end…the security situation in North Darfur is calm and stable” (Sudan Tribune, September 4, 2018 | http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article66178/). Former UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan Georg Charpentier engaged in shameless lies about the level of violence and the number of displaced and set the tone for UN commentary on Darfur.
African Union heads of UNAMID have consistently engaged in reprehensible misrepresentations of “security” and the “achievements” of UNAMID. At the end of his tenure, former UNAMID head Rodolphe Adada declared in 2009:
“What you have is security issues more now. Banditry, localised issues,” [Adada of Congo, declared]. “I have achieved results in Darfur.” “There is no more fighting proper on the ground.” “Right now there is no high-intensity conflict in Darfur. Call it what you will but this is what is happening in Darfur—a lot of banditry, carjacking, attacks on houses.”
More than two million people would be violently displaced in Darfur following this outrageous and arrogant commentary.
On his retirement in 2011, as violence in Darfur was ramping up and the Rapid Support Forces would soon be deployed on a massive scale, former UNAMID head Ibrahim Gambari declared, “I am gratified to note that barely 31 months on, all the set goals and objectives have largely been met.” Violence—including rape, murder and village destruction—has continued without pause for the past seven years. The “Doha Document for Peace in Darfur” that Gambari celebrated on the same occasion is a diplomatic dead letter, with no meaningful effect on realities in Darfur.
So great is the ignorance, so many are the falsehoods and failures of understanding, that is useful periodically to take stock of what is actually reported from Darfur, primarily from the dispatches provided by Radio Dabanga, but with substantial information coming from Sudan Tribune as well. We learn nothing from UNAMID, which is largely inert—failing continuously to investigate or even report what findings it makes. This overview is organized into three sections:
• Evidence that the Khartoum regime, far from combating human trafficking, has given free rein to the Rapid Support Forces to engage in precisely this crime
• Violence reported in Darfur over the past two months
• The current posture, pronouncements, and failures of UNAMID
• Bibliography of mendacity on the part of international actors (to appear separately)
(I have edited for length the dispatches below, and all emphases in bold have been added; commentary in blue bold italics has been added.)
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND EU OBSESSION WITH HALTING AFRICAN MIGRATION TO THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT
If one were to believe the reports from the Khartoum regime, the EU has found a valuable partner as it tries desperately to stanch African migration to the European continent. The actual “partner” in this effort, however, is the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—the militia most responsible for violent displacement and human destruction in Darfur over the past five years. The realities on the ground hardly support the claims from Khartoum:
• 28 illegal migrants arrested on Sudan-Libya border: RSF | Sudan Tribune, August 28, 2018 (KHARTOUM)
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said it has arrested twenty-eight illegal migrants the on border triangle among Libya, Sudan and Egypt on Monday. Following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s 40-year-rule in 2011, Libya has slid into chaos and has become the most important transit country for illegal migrants to Europe. In press statements on Tuesday, Director of Guidance and Services Department at the RSF Murtada Osman Abu al-Gasim said the 28 illegal migrants are Sudanese nationals, pointing out that they were heading towards the Libyan territory. He added human trafficking gangs attempted to sneak the 28 illegal migrants into Libya, saying these are the same gangs that had recently kidnapped Egyptian troops.
• Sudan to develop national anti-human trafficking strategy Sudan Tribune, July 16, 2018 (KHARTOUM)
Sudan’s Higher Committee to Combat Human Trafficking said it would develop a national anti-trafficking strategy as well as activating existing laws to counter the phenomenon in accordance with the established international standards.
Of real note, however, are subsequent comments by RSF commander Lt. General Mohamed Hamdan (aka Hemmeti):
• Militia leader: “Sudan no longer combats human trafficking” | Radio Dabanga, September 6, 2018 | KHARTOUM
The commander of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan (aka Hemeti), announced that his government has stopped dealing with illegal immigration and combating human trafficking and smuggling “because the Western countries have not responded to Khartoum’s efforts in this regard.”
He said in an interview with Sudan National Television: “There is no international response, so we have stopped fighting human trafficking and illegal immigration.” He pointed out that Sudan is a major crossing point, dealing with 65 percent of illegal immigration to Europe.
Much more disturbing than Hemmeti’s truculent comments, however, are the findings of a lengthy and highly authoritative report released earlier this month from Clingendael/Netherlands Institute of International Relations; it tells us much more about the destructiveness of EU anti-immigration policies and a willingness to work with a regime headed by a man indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide in Darfur: “Multilateral Damage: The Impact of EU migration policies on central Saharan routes,” Jérôme Tubiana, Clotilde Warin, Gaffar Mohammud Saeneen (September 2018) | https://www.clingendael.org/publication/impact-eu-migration-policies-central-saharan-routes
A key finding is that EU anti-immigration policies indirectly empower the Khartoum regime’s militias, who—while pretending to intercept migrants on behalf of Europe—actually become their main smugglers from Sudan into Libya, where they sell them to human traffickers. The lengthy report is utterly compelling in its research, and brings forcefully into question the European efforts to combat human trafficking. While the report addresses the roles of Niger and Chad as well as Sudan, it is the role of Sudan and its militias that looms largest:
Pushed by EU efforts to curtail migration, states such as Niger, Chad and Sudan have shored up border patrols and anti-smuggling operations in the border regions under study here. The report shows that this has been done in a manner that is often not conducive to stability in the region and which contributes to the ‘militia-isation’—the growing power of militias whose presence undermines the state—of the countries at issue.
So conspicuously misguided are European policies that they are having the opposite of their intended effect. And the dismaying truth is that despite denials the EU is well aware of the fact that its financial support for Khartoum is actually increasing the power of the brutal RSF, now the regime’s militia of choice. An investigative report by Der Spiegel in 2016 highlighted this grimly cynical acceptance by Europeans.
The report from Clingendael/Netherlands Institute of International Relations deserves the closest possible reading in European capitals, particularly given the ascendancy of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia in Darfur.
VIOLENCE REPORTED IN DARFUR OVER THE PAST TWO MONTHS
These reports are entirely consistent with previous months—and years—of reporting. Two monographs covering specifically the years 2014 and 2015, focusing on the rape of girls and women and on the massive, violent expropriation of African farmlands are included in the concluding bibliography (which will appear separately).
The first dispatch is important for several reasons. It reveals that human displacement by violent means continues, and that those displaced often arrive in camps or locales in acute distress. Moreover, we are obliged to assume that many simply died before reaching their destination. The UN estimates that some 2.2 million people remain in IDP camps, too fearful to return to their homes and lands because of the clear threat of violence by the armed Arab groups and militias that have occupied them. The UN estimates that another 500,000 are displaced but not in IDP camps; the have found host families or communities, or exist in makeshift shelters, unable to reach camps. In other words, the population of internally displaced is roughly 2.7 million. The UN High Commission for Refugees offers a figure of more than 300,000 Darfuri refugees in eastern Chad, a population that is increasingly distressed, and yet also too fearful to return to face the violence they know they will confront in Darfur.
Altogether the population of displaced Darfuris remains a staggering 3 million people. Unforgivably, some 2 million of these people have been displaced since UNAMID took on its mandate more than ten years ago. Recent displacement has been greatest in North Darfur and Central Darfur (and the greater Jebel Marra area generally):
• 900 new IDPs arrive in Central Darfur’s Golo in July | Sudan Tribune, July 26, 2018 (KHARTOUM)
The central Darfur authorities and local leaders of internally displaced persons (IDPs) are discussing the relocation of 900 people who fled their homes in East Jebel Marra locality. The Sudanese government forces sporadically clash with the fighters of the Sudan Liberation Movement-Abdel Wahid (SLM/AW) in different areas in Jebel Marra, as a result, hundreds of villagers continue to move in the mountainous area fleeing their homes. In its bimonthly bulletin, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that about 900 IDPs arrived in early July to Golo where the peacekeeping mission is establishing its headquarters…
The UN peacekeepers truck water to the school. Also, the latrines at the school are insufficient but the problem of hygiene cannot be resolved quickly because the construction of new latrines is pending the relocation of the IDPs. “If this is not addressed soon, sanitation will further deteriorate, potentially increasing the likelihood of disease outbreaks given the start of the rainy season,” said the humanitarian bulletin.
Acute Malnutrition
Among the new IDPs, seven cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and 20 cases of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) were reported as of 11 July. All the cases were referred to treatment in Golo hospital. “However, the hospital has reported a gap in ready-to-use-supplementary foods (RUSD) due to a disruption in the supply pipeline last month,” said OCHA. For its part, the WFP distributed one-month food rations for the displaced persons.
Other recent dispatches have a terrible familiarity, continuing fifteen years of genocidal counter-insurgency that has consistently targeted the non-Arab/African civilian populations. This is true in every dispatch recorded here:
• Farmers, firewood collectors attacked in South Darfur | Radio Dabanga, September 18, 2018 | GOBO / MERSHING
Militiamen shot and abducted two farmers in southern Jebel Marra on Sunday. Three firewood abductors in Mershing were attacked and robbed of their carts. An eyewitness reported that militiamen in four vehicles arrived at farmlands in Gobo and attacked Abdelmahmoud Saleh (35 years) and Yahya Haroun (45) while they were tilling their farm. They shot Yahya in both legs and beat Abdelmahmoud with their rifle butts, the witness said. Then the perpetrators took them up in one of the vehicles by force of arms and drove off. The witness expressed concern that the victims might be tortured or killed.
Abduction
Also on Sunday, a number of herders held three displaced people from Selo camp in Mershing area, and demanded SDG 15,000 for the release of their possessions.
[Such extortion has only increased over the years as fewer and fewer villages can be attacked for booty. UNAMID has proved utterly incapable of halting the activity—ER]
One of the sheikhs in the South Darfur camp told Radio Dabanga that a number of herders seized the three camp residents when they were west of the camp collecting firewood. “The three victims were released on Monday, but the herders demand SDG15,000 for their carts.”
Disputes between herders and farmers occur more often this time of year, as herders let their cattle graze on farmlands that have not yet been harvested, causing friction between the groups. In addition, farmers in the area of Jebel Marra in Darfur are often attacked by militant herders. This has also been the case for returning displaced people looking to farm in their area of origin.
• Sisters raped on farm near North Darfur camp | Radio Dabanga, September 14, 2018 | ZAMZAM camp for displaced
Three men have raped two displaced girls on a farm in El Fasher locality on Wednesday, and raped them for more than three hours. The aunt of the victims told Radio Dabanga that three herders attacked the two sisters, aged 15 and 17 years, while they were tilling a farm at Tayarat. The area is close to Zamzam camp for displaced people.
They raped them at gunpoint for more than three hours. She explained that the victims were taken to the Tabit health centre, which let them be transferred to El Fasher because of their critical health condition.
Earlier this month armed herders opened fire and seriously wounded five people at Kurfla area, 5 km west of Tabit. A family member of one of the victims told Radio Dabanga yesterday that eight herders on camels opened fire on a group of displaced people who returned to Kurfla for farming. On August 7, herders attacked a group of farmers south of Tabit when they tried to drive away the herders’ livestock, upon which they opened fire. This resulted in the killing of a woman.
[The inability of UNAMID to protect people who do attempt to return to their farms is a signal mark of failure, particularly since the Khartoum regime continues to tout the success of “returns”—ER]
• Darfur violence: Man killed, farmers wounded | Radio Dabanga, September 4, 2018 | EL RADOOM / TABIT
In several violent incidents on Sunday, a man was killed in South Darfur, while five displaced people were attacked and injured in Tabit, North Darfur. Butcher Adam Mohamed Farsha was shot dead in El Radoom locality in South Darfur by unknown gunmen. One of the relatives of Farsha told Radio Dabanga that unknown gunmen opened fire on the butcher when he was in the way from Wedhajam market to Shurrab village. The attackers instantly killed him, seized SDG2000 ($71*) from him and fled.
In Tabit in North Darfur, armed herders opened fire and seriously wounded five people at Kurfla area, 5 km west of Tabit. A family member of one of the victims told Radio Dabanga yesterday that eight herders on camels opened fire on a group of displaced people who returned to Kurfla for farming. The gunmen wounded Omar Abdallah, Ahmed Omar Abdallah, Mohamed Ishag Hamid, Suleiman Haroun Yahya and Aisha Musa Omar who all were transferred to El Fasher for treatment.
On August 7 herders attacked a group of farmers south of Tabit when they tried to drive away the herders’ livestock, upon which they opened fire. This resulted in the killing of a woman.
[UNAMID neither protects these people nor does it seek to apprehend the perpetrators; it is an impotent, demoralized, badly led mission that has never had the courage to stand up to Khartoum or its militia forces. Khartoum has from the beginning denied access to UNAMID despite a January 2008 “Status of Forces Agreement” (SOFA) that guarantees UNAMID the right of unfettered travel throughout Darfur. A recent example of Khartoum denying UNAMID access to a critical situation appears below—ER]
• “Three dead, five injured” in shooting at North Darfur market | Radio Dabanga, September 9, 2018 | KUTUM
Reportedly three people were killed and five others were seriously wounded in a gunfight between an army officer and members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia in Kutum, North Darfur, on Friday. In conflicting accounts of the incident, some people told Radio Dabanga that the shooting was triggered by an attempt of two RSF militiamen to forcibly remove a kadamol [a scarf covering the face] from the head of an army officer. Others reported that the two accused the officer of possessing drugs.
All agreed that a row erupted between an army officer and two RSF members at Kutum market. They said that the officer suddenly began shooting at them. Both militiamen and a passer-by died instantly. Five others, two children, two women and a man, sustained various bullet wounds. The Commissioner of Kutum, Mohamed Ahmed El Haj, told the press later on Friday that 11 people were killed and wounded: three army soldiers, three militiamen, and five citizens.
• Inquiry into deadly North Darfur market shooting | Radio Dabanga, September 10, 2018 | KUTUM
The commissioner of Kutum locality in North Darfur, Mohamed Ahmad El Haj, has announced the formation of a committee of inquiry into the killing and wounding of 11 people on Friday. The commissioner said in a press statement that a suspect has been arrested and legal action is being taken against him. Commissioner El Haj told the press on Friday that 11 people were killed and wounded: three army soldiers, three militiamen, and five citizens.
[In a relatively recent development, tensions between the regular army (Sudan Armed Forces, or SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia have become violent. The RSF see themselves as above the law, and although officially part of the regime are not directly in the SAF chain of command. They are a force unto themselves, and controlling them will be an ongoing problem for Khartoum, even as it increasingly depends upon their brutality in Darfur. There is strong evidence that the RSF engages in drug running and human trafficking (see above)—ER]
• South Darfur sheikh slain in armed robbery | Radio Dabanga, September 3, 2018 | MERSHING / NYALA
A South Darfur sheikh has been killed and four other people wounded in an armed robbery at the weekend. Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a commercial vehicle on its way from Mershing to Rabkona. Sheikh Abbas Nasr died in the gunfire, and four others were injured.
They said the gunmen robbed the passengers of their property and goods of the passengers. The perpetrators then took four passengers with them as hostages. They beat them, and then released them after four hours of torture.
Otash camp
In two separate incidents, two displaced women from Otash camp in Nyala were stabbed by militants. One of the camp sheikhs told Radio Dabanga that gunmen attacked a house at Block 7 for robbery, where one of them stabbed a 17-year-old girl. Another woman was subjected to three stab wounds by unknown gunmen at block 6. The Sheikh has complained of nightly robberies and thefts at gunpoint.
[UNAMID has proved notably unable to protect even civilians in camps; the Formed Police Units that were to have been central to the Darfur mission have been gutted by force reductions, and were never effectively deployed, equipped, or given sufficient support in protecting against attacks by Khartoum-allied armed elements—ER]
• Gunmen attack three people in Darfur, two killed | Radio Dabanga, August 31, 2018 | ZALINGEI / KHAZAN TUNJUR
Two men were shot dead by unknown gunmen on the way to their camp for displaced people in Zalingei, Central Darfur on Wednesday. A woman was shot on her farm in North Darfur on Thursday.
Abakar Omar Abakar and Isameldin Haroun lived in Hasahisa camp, the coordinator of Central Darfur camps told Radio Dabanga. Coordinator El Shafi Abdallah reported that gunmen opened fire on the men while they were on their way from Zalingei to Hasahisa, and killed them instantly.
In Khazan Tunjur in North Darfur, an armed man opened fire on Hawa Yacoub Suleiman while she was tilling her farm. A witness reported that the armed man was a herder. The gunshot seriously wounded Hawa and she has been transferred to the military garrison in the area for treatment.
Earlier this month a woman farmer was killed and four other farmers were injured in an attack by armed herders on farms south of Tabit. Farmers in Tawila locality, popularly known as eastern Jebel Marra, are often attacked by militant herders who want to use their farms as pasture. Displaced returning to their area of origin complain about new settlers who occupy their villages.
[Until farmers can safely return to their lands and villages, the Darfur genocide will continue, as people are forced to live in conditions that often meet the threshold defined by Article 2 of the 1948 UN Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crimes of Genocide:
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
The “conditions of life” in much of Darfur have been calculated, precisely, to bring about the destruction in part of the non-Arab/African population of the region. The is reflected in, among other things, the continuing impeding, harassing, and obstruction of humanitarian relief to the area—ER]
• Murder in North Darfur, man drowns in valley flood | Radio Dabanga, August 29, 2018 | KUTUM
On Monday, displaced farmer Abdalkarim Abdalmajid Suleiman was shot dead by a herder in Kutum locality in North Darfur. Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that one of the herders opened fire on Abdalkarim while he was tilling his farm east of Fata Borno camp and instantly killed him. The motive for the attack is not immediately known, however farmers and herders frequently clash in Darfur over the rights to land and grazing.
[In earlier times, the passage of livestock—cattle and camels in particular—through farms was a negotiated event, with farmers receiving compensation for the damage done. The system was far from perfect and clashes certainly occurred. What we are seeing now is quite different: armed Arab groups (usually referred to by Radio Dabanga as “herders,” i.e., nomadic pastoralists with either cattle or camels or both) deliberately rampage over farms, with as much destructiveness as possible—ER]
• Rapid Support Forces storm police station to retrieve camels | Radio Dabanga, August 28, 2018 | TABIT
Members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have reportedly stormed the police station in Tabit, North Darfur, to retrieve camels that were seized following damage to farms. Several farmers told Radio Dabanga that they filed a complaint against the destruction of a vast area of farmland by camels near Tabit in Tawila locality. Camel herders had driven the herds there to graze. The local police seized about 150 camels and took them to the police station.
A group of RSF members then stormed the police station to retrieve the camels under force of arms. A farmer said that the RSF drove two vehicles and were under the command of a RSF lieutenant. “The camels were freed in full view of the authorities,” he said.
[There is no will by police or even the SAF to confront the RSF—ER]
Herders and farmers
Earlier this month a woman farmer was killed and four other farmers were injured in an attack by armed herders on farms south of Tabit. Farmers in Tawila locality, popularly known as eastern Jebel Marra, are often attacked by militant herders who want to use their farms as pasture. Displaced returning to their area of origin complain about new settlers who occupy their villages.
[This last complaint is the constant refrain that can be heard in these dispatches, and the inability of the police and regular army forces to control the RSF or other armed Arab groups ensures that violence and continuing displacement define the situation on the ground in Darfur—ER]
• Five RSF fighters slain as internal clashes spread to South Darfur hospital | Radio Dabanga, August 2 – 2018 DOMAYA / NYALA
Five members of the Rapid Support Forces militia have died as a result of internal clashes within the main government militia. Clashes that broke out between RSF members at Domaya base on Saturday that resulted in killing of four, including an officer.
Abdallah Khayora was wounded and transferred to Nyala Hospital where allegedly, a fellow RSF member assigned to guard him shot him dead on Wednesday morning. Residents in Nyala described the situation as very tense following the elimination of the wounded militiaman inside the hospital. According to witnesses in Nyala, the authorities have raised their preparations and deployed a joint force in the strategic sites, the entrances and on the roads of the city as a pre-emptive step in anticipation of any developments.
[The brutality, ruthlessness, and lack of discipline within the RSF ranks is fully on display in this dispatch. These are the same men who have been charged, in effect, with providing security on the cheap in Darfur. This is a formula for continuing mayhem—ER]
• Four dead, South Darfur village torched in pre-Eid raid | Radio Dabanga, August 27 – 2018 MERSHING
Four people were killed and others were injured in an attack by gunmen on Guba village in Eastern Jebel Marra, who reportedly also stole property and cattle before burning the village. One of the women whose husband was killed in the attack told Radio Dabanga that gunmen driving two vehicles and others on camels and horses attacked the village before Eid El Adha and killed Adam Suleiman Ahmed, Musa Omar Ahmed, Mukhtar Arja Rajab, and Dowelbait Ali Mohamed.
The stole money, property, and livestock, while the villagers were forcibly displaced to Mershing camp in South Darfur.
180 families
More than 180 families who have been displaced from Eastern Jebel Marra because of attacks by herders have reached camp Mershing. One of the camp sheikhs told Radio Dabanga that the families, consisting of about 500 people, mostly children and women, arrived in batches at the camp three weeks ago. Those fleeing reported that they had been attacked by herders and appealed to the authorities and organisations to provide them with assistance.
[Violent human displacement remains a defining feature of life in Darfur, and UNAMID is unable to halt or diminish it. Indeed, since UNAMID took up its mandate officially in January 2008, more than 2 million Darfuris—almost all of them non-Arab/African—have been newly displaced | http://sudanreeves.org/2013/06/03/taking-human-displacement-in-darfur-seriously/ — ER]
• Deadly shooting in Gireida, South Darfur | Radio Dabanga, August 20, 2018 | GIREIDA
A 35-year-old displaced man, Salah Juma was shot dead in Gireida in South Darfur on Saturday. A relative told Radio Dabanga from Gireida that at 10 am on Saturday an unknown person opened fire on Salah near Abuja police station. He was on his way to camp Um Halab. The victim was killed instantly.
• Woman dies, four injured as herders attack North Darfur farms | Radio Dabanga, August 8, 2018 | TABIT
A woman farmer has died and four others injured in an attack by armed herders on farms south of Tabit in Tawila locality in North Darfur on Tuesday. Farmers told Radio Dabanga that the attack was carried out by 12 armed herders on camels after they let their livestock graze on the farms south of Tabit Witnesses said that when the women farmers tried to drive the livestock from their farms, the herders opened fire. Sara Yagoub (25) was shot dead and Shawgara Ali, Kalthoum Yousef, Hawa Mohamed, and Meimona Yousef were injured. They said wounded women were taken to a health centre and the incident was reported to the police.
• Two farmers killed at voluntary return village in Central Darfur | Sudan Tribune, August 6, 2018 (ZALINGEI)
Two farmers have been killed and one seriously injured on Sunday in an attack by unknown gunmen against Kambo Di village for voluntary return, 5 kilometres west of Zalingei the capital of Central Darfur State. In a statement seen by Sudan Tribune, IDPs and Refugees Committee in Central Darfur said 6 gunmen at 2:00 am (local time) on Sunday opened fire at Kambo Di residents killing two and injuring one.
It pointed out that the dead persons are identified as Khadiga Adam Salih and Adam Ibrahim Abdel-Karim while Mariam Adam has sustained serious injuries. An official source told Sudan Tribune the security organs have immediately deployed troops to the incident scene, saying, 5 suspects, have been captured and transferred to Zalingei prison to conduct criminal proceedings.
Meanwhile, hundreds of IDPs have attended the funeral at Hasahesa camp graveyard amid widespread condemnation of the incident. Several villages of voluntary return have been attacked by gunmen who refuse to allow farmers return to their original areas and use their farmland. Last June, 8 people were killed and 7 others injured seriously by unidentified gunmen at Higair Tunu village for voluntary return, 29 kilometres southeast of South Darfur capital, Nyala.
Since the signing of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur in July 2011, the government constructed several villages and vowed to support IDPs who return to their home areas. However, the displaced complain that the security situation remains the same pointing to the government militia saying they continue to attack them and grab their land.
[Again and again, the same complaint is made about the dangers facing those returning to their villages and lands; yet the UN and the Khartoum regime take every opportunity to celebrate these returns, even if they end in violent failure and a return by the farmers to camps. Unless there is a meaningful restoration of violently expropriated lands in Darfur, there will never be peace—ER]
• Couple killed in attack on Central Darfur village | Radio Dabanga, August 6, 2018 | ZALINGEI
A displaced man and his wife were shot dead by gunmen in a village near the Central Darfur capital of Zalingei this weekend. El Shafee Abdallah, coordinator of the Central Darfur displacement camps, told Radio Dabanga that a group of gunmen stormed Kombo Dei, 4 km west of Zalingei, on Saturday night. “They shot around them. Adam Abdelkarim and his wife Khadeeja Ahmed were fatally hit. Their daughter Maryam was wounded,” he said.
“After they robbed the villagers of their belongings and their donkey carts, they set fire to the houses.” Abdallah explained that Kombo Dei is home to a number of displaced people from neighbouring Hasahisa camp, who returned to the village to cultivate their farms. He said the incident was reported to the police of Zalingei. Similar attacks occurred in villages in North and South Darfur in late July.
[It should be noted that Radio Dabanga often includes multiple incidents in dispatches, or makes generalizations that include many incidents, as in the last sentence here, with links to earlier dispatches—ER]
• Farmer abducted in Tawila, North Darfur | Radio Dabanga, August 6, 2018| TAWILA
A group of gunmen abducted a 45-year-old farmer near Dubo El Omda in Tawila locality on Saturday. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, a relative of the victim reported that unidentified gunmen riding in a Land Cruiser raided the farm of Ayoub Hussein Hamid in Falluja, south of Dubo El Omda. “They seized him at gunpoint in front of his family, and then headed east to an unknown destination,” he said.
On Thursday, the head of UNAMID North Darfur sector, Sinina Lo, visited Tawila to assess the security situation in the area and possibilities of voluntary returnees to cultivate their land.
She said UNAMID is ready to cooperate with the locality in support of voluntary repatriation efforts and the rehabilitation of police stations in order to enhance security.
[This is finally despicably disingenuous encouragement: UNAMID is severely contracting its Mission presence—to the Jebel Marra area—and has proved unable to protect civilians there—or anywhere else it has been present. Perhaps the grimmest moment of UNAMID paralysis in the face of civilian slaughter occurred in Tabarat, North Darfur in September 2010; it was reported by Reuters and shows how UNAMID simply stood by as a massacre occurred just miles from where it was based, even after survivors begged for assistance | http://sudanreeves.org/2011/09/18/%E2%80%9Cwhat-we-learn-of-unamid-from-the-september-2010-tabarat-massacre%E2%80%9D/ —ER]
Farmers in Tawila locality, popularly known as eastern Jebel Marra, are often attacked by militant herders who want to use their farms as pasture. Displaced returning to their area of origin complain about new settlers who occupy their villages. In end July, a man was killed in a raid on a village near Dubo El Omda.
• Central Darfuri killed for mobile telephone | Radio Dabanga, August 3, 2018 | ZALINGEI
Armed robbers shot a resident of El Hamidiya camp of Zalingei in Central Darfur on Tuesday. A day later, he succumbed to this wounds. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, El Shafee Abdallah, the coordinator of the Central Darfur camps, told Radio Dabanga that two gunmen intercepted Ibrahim Ahmed Bakheet near the camp on Tuesday by force of arms.
“They told Bakheet to hand his mobile telephone. When he resisted, they shot him,” Abdallah said. “He was taken to Zalingei Hospital. There the medics advised his transfer to the better equipped Hospital of El Geneina, but he died on the road on Wednesday.”
[This extraordinary contempt for life by lawless elements in Darfur continues to stagger—ER]
• Four dead in attack on South Darfur village | Radio Dabanga, July 29 – 2018 EAST JEBEL MARRA
Four people, including a child, were killed in a militia raid on the village of Kibe in South Sudan’s East Jebel Marra locality on Friday. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, fleeing villagers reported that a group of militiamen riding vehicles mounted with machine guns, and others on camels and horses stormed Kibe on Friday morning. “They shot around them, killing Abdallah Ageed (70), Esam Abdelrahman (45), Adam Abboud (27), aged 27, and Mohamed Assam (7) instantly,” a villager said. “Halima Mohamed was wounded.”
After the attackers took dozens of cows, horses, sheep, and goats, they set fire to the houses and fled. The Darfur Displaced and Refugees Association based in South Darfur’s Kalma camp has strongly condemned the incident and is holding the authorities responsible. The Association’s spokesman, Hussein Abusharati, demanded the perpetrators be arrested and brought to justice.
A week ago, a man was killed in a similar raid on a village in North Darfur’s Tawila locality. The UN Deputy Secretary-General for Field Support visited South Darfur last week. He confirmed that the UN-AU peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) will complete its exit in June 2020.
[The commitment to withdraw UNAMID is a function not of its success, or meaningful human security in Darfur, but rather an expedient wish to end a costly mission that provides such poor results. Nonetheless, the complete absence of an international presence in Darfur will have extremely severe consequences, including the likely precipitating of withdrawal by humanitarian organizations that still bravely offer assistance to those in need—ER]
• East Darfur farmer detained by security agents | Radio Dabanga, July 29, 2018 | YASSIN
Agents of the National intelligence and Security Service (NISS) held a farmer in East Darfur on Friday. The spokesman for the Darfur Displaced and Refugees Association, Hussein Abusharati, told Radio Dabanga that NISS agents detained a 35-year-old displaced farmer from his farm in Yassin locality. “They seized Adam Abdelkarim while he was tilling his farm in the area of Salia and took him with them,” he said. “The reasons for the move are unclear to anyone who knows him.”
[Torture by the regime’s security agents in Darfur is commonplace; I have personally interviewed many victims of this torture, and its brutality can scarcely be overstated—ER]
• Pregnant woman slain in Central Darfur shooting | Radio Dabanga, July 25, 2018 | MUKJAR
A 28-year-old mother of five, who was eight months pregnant, was shot dead by militiamen at Kombo Tindi area, east of Mukjar in Central Darfur on Monday. A sheikh from camp Mukjar told Radio Dabanga that gunmen fired three bullets into the chest of Halima Abdelmahmoud. She died instantly. He said the incident was reported to Mukjar police, who arrested a suspect named as Mohamed Dardeimo.
[Sometimes arrests do occur; typically the perpetrator of murder or rape is never convicted or sentenced—ER]
Abduction
On Tuesday morning, gunmen on camels abducted 27-year old farmer Habib Suleiman, and 22-year-old Maryam Khalid, from Dubo El Omda south of Katur in Tawila locality in North Darfur. A farmer told Radio Dabanga that five armed men threatened the two farmers on their land, tied them and then took them to an unknown destination.
• Shelling, crime leave four dead in Darfur | Radio Dabanga, July 24, 2018 | KASS / EL RADOOM / BURAM / YASSIN
Separate incidents in Darfur have led to the death of four people, including two women, a policeman and a farmer. A blast bomb in southern Jebel Marra caused the death of two women and six livestock on Sunday night. A sheikh from Gouku informed Radio Dabanga that Sudanese military troops stationed at Gog, north of Kass, shelled several areas that night, killing Darelsalam Hamid (22) and Hawa Younis (72) on the spot.
[Indiscriminate artillery shelling has replaced indiscriminate aerial bombardment as a primary weapon in Khartoum’s continuing war on civilians perceived as supporting rebel forces—ER]
The sheikh explained that this forced residents to escape the attack. Fighting between the Sudanese army and allied militias against the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW) sparked again starting March this year. The government attempts to eliminate the last strongholds of the only remaining rebel group in the region.
Farmers
In East Jebel Marra, 35-year-old Adam Haroun Yagoub was seriously wounded while trying to drive cattle off his farm. Farmers in the states North, South and West Darfur have complained about herders who let their cattle graze on the farmlands by force of arms. The fields are now in process of germination, a farmer in Darfur told Radio Dabanga.
He said that they have filed several reports about incidents with herders to police stations. These have not moved quickly to stop the attacks of the herders, the farmer added. In South Darfur, herders shot dead farmer Adam Babikir at his farm near Abujou village, El Radoom locality, on Monday morning. The incident was reported to the police.
• Repeated attacks on farmers in Mukjar, South Darfur | Radio Dabanga, July 23, 2018 | MUKJAR
Since last week, militiamen are assaulting farmers in several parts of Central Darfur’s Mukjar locality. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, a victim reported that the gunmen attacked him on Tuesday. “They beat me with their whips, and stole my two donkeys near Kombo Sendu village,” he said. “They took four other donkeys from farmers in Keredu and Kombo Saraf Majin.”
He said that on Wednesday, the attackers subjected farmer Jamal Adam from Kombo Tende to heavy beating with whips and sticks before robbing him of his money and mobile telephone. “He had to be taken to Mukjar Hospital.”
The source called on UNAMID and the local authorities “to act urgently, protect the farmers and persecute the perpetrators.” He also urged the Central Darfur state government “to immediately resume the disarmament process so that the people can safely tend their farms in Mukjar.”
[Darfuri civilians have been calling on UNAMID in vain to provide desperately needed protection; the Mission has failed catastrophically in it response—ER]
• Attack on North Darfur village leaves one dead | Radio Dabanga, July 22, 2018 | TAWILA
A villager was killed in a raid on Tamra village in North Darfur’s Tawila locality on Thursday. Fleeing villagers told Radio Dabanga that a group of unknown gunmen riding on camels and horses attacked Tamra, north of Dubo El Omda, on Thursday morning. “They stormed the village, shooting wildly in the air. Mahjoub Haroun was fatally hit. His brother Bakheet was seriously injured,” he said. The gunmen then seized 150 cows and 35 camels and fled. The incident was reported to the police of Tawila.
[Despite the presence of UNAMID and declarations that “security has improved in Darfur,” the reality is that villages are still subject to brutal attack by Arab militia forces—ER]
• Omda dies of wounds, farmer killed in Darfur | Radio Dabanga, July 20, 2018 | NYALA / NIERTETI / EL GENEINA
The omda of Digris in Nyala locality has died of his wounds in the hospital on Wednesday. He and his wife were fatally shot in their house on Wednesday July 11.
Omda Jibril Ahmed Ali Muhajir succumbed to the wounds in his chest and thigh in Nyala hospital. Gunmen had attacked the couple a week before. Aisha Mohamed Adam was killed on the spot and Jibril Ahmed taken to hospital in a serious condition.
They had recently returned from Kalma camp for displaced people to their home area, as part of the government’s voluntary return programme.
[This failure to protect returning displaced persons is a disgrace to the UN, the African Union, and all international actors who refuse to acknowledge the level of violence and insecurity throughout Darfur—ER]
At least nine people have been killed since the start of the current agricultural season in Gireida in South Darfur, all of whom have been voluntary returnees to their villages this rainy season, this station reported in June.
[“all of whom have been voluntary returnees to their villages this rainy season, this station reported in June….” —ER]
Farmer killed
Militiamen shot dead a 45-year-old man north of Tur in Nierteti, Central Darfur, on Wednesday. The incident took place in Kalu, north of Tur. Family members of Siddig Osman told radio Dabanga that he was on his way back from his farm to the camps in Tur when “members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces” shot him.
• Camel herders shoot farmers in North Darfur | Radio Dabanga, July 16, 2018 | TAWILA
Two farmers were wounded in a herders’ attack on their farm in Tawila locality in North Darfur on Sunday. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, a farmer reported that three herders entered their camels on the farm of Hawa Omar and Adam Bakheet near Faluja, 7 km south of Dubo El Omda in Tawila locality, on Sunday morning.
The farmers protested whereupon the herder began to shoot. Bakheet (42) had both legs broken, Omar (37) was injured in her hand. The incident was reported to the military garrison of Katur. The wounded were taken to a nearby health centre.
• Repeated militia assaults in Central Darfur’s Nierteti | Radio Dabanga, July 16, 2018 | TURR
People living in the area of Turr in Central Darfur’s Nierteti locality are suffering from militia attacks for more than a week. An activist reported to Radio Dabanga from Turr, that members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan’s main militia, began attacking the residents of the area about eights days ago. The militia troops fought rebel combatants of the Sudan Liberation Movement under the leadership of Abdelwahid El Nur in various places in Jebel Marra since early March this year.
“The assaults began with the return of the RSF from the battles in Jebel Marra,” the source explained. “The militiamen raid houses, beat-up the inhabitants, and take away every that has some value.” He added that though the residents have notified the police, the army garrison in the area, and the commissioner of Nierteti locality, the assaults are continuing.
[The RSF frequently attacks civilians simply because of frustration and battle losses; the people they attack, however, have nothing to do with the rebels—ER]
• Repeated attacks on farmers in North Darfur’s Kabkabiya | Radio Dabanga, July 15, 2018 | KABKABIYA
Displaced farmers in Kabkabiya in North Darfur complain about repeated attacks by militant herders who prevent them of cultivating their land. Two returnees were shot at their farms near Janga. Displaced farmers who returned to the villages of Wad Tamra, Arbabuyout, Badi, and Beni Mansour in Kabkabiya locality to cultivate their land, told Radio Dabanga that a group of armed herders are wreaking havoc in the area,
“Three weeks ago, a large group of armed herders raided the area, and gathered all of us in one place,” one of the victims said. “They severely beat us and told us that our farms have been turned in to pastures, and we should leave as soon as possible.”
[This conversion of farmland worked by non-Arab/African tribal groups to pasturage for Arab semi-nomadic pastoralists has worked to give profound meaning to the declaration by former Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal, speaking from Misteriya, North Darfur in 2004: “Change the demography of Darfur; empty it of African tribes…”—ER]
Returnees attacked
Unidentified gunmen shot two farmers in the area of Janga in Kabkabiya on Wednesday evening. A farmer told this station they were among the displaced people who returned from Kabkabiya and Kassab camps for the displaced to their villages in the area of Janga after the Commissioner of Kabkabiya told them that the situation had become safe.
“After we began cleaning the soil, gunmen stormed our lands and started to shoot. Abakar Wad Arjoun and Mohamed Ismail were seriously wounded,” he said. “They were taken to Kabkabiya Hospital.”
Secure
After a large disarmament campaign in Darfur last year that only partially succeeded, the Sudanese government considers the situation in the conflict-torn western region safe enough to encourage the displaced in the camps to return to their areas of origin. Khartoum as well pushes for the exit of the UNAMID peacekeepers from Darfur.
However, Radio Dabanga received multiple reports about returnees being attacked. In June at least 19 farmers were shot in North Darfur’s Kutum. They had returned from the camps for the displaced to cultivate their lands. In June, about 2,000 fruit trees were found cut in Kutum, allegedly done to prevent displaced landowners from returning to the area.
The displaced in the camps say the insecurity is caused by roaming militiamen and the abundance of weapons as well as the danger of running into militant Arab tribesmen and migrants from Chad, Mali, and Niger who settled in their home areas. In May, approximately 250 families were forced to return to camps in Kabkabiya after mediation attempts with new settlers in their home villages failed.
In addition, attacks by army soldiers and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces on villages in Jebel Marra have caused the displacement of thousands of villagers this year.
[This is the reality in Darfur, not the glib, disingenuous, and expedient assessments offered by the UN and African Union—ER]
• Woman killed, omda injured in South Darfur | Radio Dabanga, July 13, 2018 | NYALA
A woman was shot dead as her husband, a local omda, was seriously wounded in a shooting by unknown gunmen near the South Darfur capital on Wednesday night.
The wife of Jibril Ahmed, Omda of Digris, died on the spot during the assault in their house in Digris, 15 km west of Nyala.
Omda Ahmed is a native administrator. He and his wife had been displaced for years and recently returned to their home area Digris with a number of displaced people from Kalma camp, as part of the voluntary repatriation. His son Ahmed Jibril told Radio Dabanga that Ahmed was shot in the chest and the thigh and has been taken to Nyala Hospital. He did not know the motive for the attack.
Voluntary return
In the past months, the government repeated announcements in the media that villages in Darfur are safe, urging displaced people to move from their camps home. Voluntary return is one of the options which the Sudanese government gives to the people in Darfur who have been displaced by the armed conflict that erupted in 2003. Khartoum plans to transform the camps into residential areas, or integrate them into existing towns.
Leading Sheikh of the camps for displaced people in Darfur, Ali Abdelrahman, called on all refugees and displaced people to not return voluntarily to their villages of origin “in order to preserve their lives and property from the so-called new settlers.”
In an interview with Radio Dabanga, the sheikh pointed to a number of deadly attacks on voluntary returnees in various areas of Darfur by armed people who have settled in these areas. At least nine people have been killed since the start of the current agricultural season in Gireida in South Darfur, all of whom have been voluntary returnees to their villages this rainy season, this station reported in June.
“The authorities are asking the displaced to return without providing security in these villages, while they learn that settlers are present there,” said Abdelrahman.
• Two killed in North Darfur UXO explosion | Radio Dabanga, August 5, 2018 | TABIT
Two siblings were killed when an item of unexploded ordinance (UXO) detonated near Tabit in North Darfur on Friday. A relative of the victims reported that Hamid Adam Hamdan (17) and his sister Sara (12) found a war remnant in the area of Jinga, south of Tabit, on Friday. “We think it was a grenade. They picked it up and began playing with it, causing an explosion,” he said. “They died instantly.”
[For years, Khartoum’s regular and militia forces have engaged in widespread, indiscriminate assaults using bombs, artillery shells, mortar shell, RPG’s, and other ordnance. The quality of the ordnance is often poor, resulting in a failure to detonate at the time of discharge, leaving bombs, shells and grenades all too frequently where they will be encountered by children—ER]
THE STATUS OF UNAMID
The UN and African Union seem incapable of admitting how massively UNAMID has failed. The result is that the continuing drawdown of UNAMID forces is justified by denying the realities chronicled above. Civilians have not been protected by UNAMID, and more than 2 million people have been violently displaced on UNAMID’s “watch.”
Moreover, neither the UN nor the AU has ever taken seriously the major issue represented by Khartoum’s denial of access to the Mission, despite a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed by the regime in January 2008, as UNAMID officially deployed. This has meant that investigations of atrocities have either been delayed or never conducted at all. The obstruction of UNAMID operations, even in the most critical arenas, continues to this day:
• Sudanese authorities obstruct UNAMID access to East Jebel Marra: Mamabolo | Sudan Tribune, August 28, 2018 (EL-FASHER/UNAMID)
Joint Special Representative (JSR), Jeremiah Mamabolo, Tuesday called to ensure unfettered access for peacekeepers to the eastern part of Jebel Marra disclosing that the state authorities have prevented them 14 times from reaching the troubled area since July. In line with the reconfiguration process of the hybrid peacekeeping mission before its eventual withdrawal in 2020, the UNAMID is tasked with the protection of civilian only in the greater Jebel Marra area.
Accordingly, the mission moved almost all its 4,000 troops to its new Temporary Operating Base in Golo, Central Darfur and launched regular patrols to inspect the security situation and protect civilians due to the sporadic clashes between the army and a holdout rebel group in the mountainous area.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the UNMAID chief, however, said he had to travel to Nyala to discuss “access challenges affecting the Mission’s operations in parts of East Jebel Marra” with the South Darfur Deputy Governor Taha Abdallah Hamid and the State Security Committee. Mamabolo reminded “Sudanese officials that UN Security Council Resolution 2429 (2018) obligates the Government of Sudan to facilitate access, thus enabling UNAMID to carry out its mandate of protecting civilians,” said a statement extended to Sudan Tribune.
Out of 14 access denials have been reported by UNAMID patrol teams across Darfur since July 2018, seven were recorded in Menawashei, Mershing locality of South Darfur state, the statement revealed.
“I will continue to engage the state and local authorities on this issue and, in parallel, raise my concern with the authorities in Khartoum,” Mamabolo said.
[Past such efforts have yielded nothing, as Mamabolo well knows. This is all a perfunctory pretense that Khartoum takes UNAMID seriously on such issues—ER]
• UNAMID to withdraw from 4 sites in North Darfur | Sudan Tribune, September 15, 2018 (KHARTOUM)
The government of North Darfur State said the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) would withdraw from a number of sites in the state according to the exit strategy agreed among the Sudanese government, African Union and the United Nations. The semi-official Sudan Media Center (SMC) quoted the deputy governor of North Darfur Mohamed Braima Jar al-Nabi as saying the UNAMID would withdraw from Al-Seraif, Saraf Omra, Ambru and Kernoi localities.
[These are some of the areas that have been most affected by violence of recent years; there can be no possible justification on human security grounds for these withdrawal—ER]
Jar al-Nabi added the Mission has so far withdrawn from 6 sites in Tina, Um Kadada, Kutum and Tawila localities, saying arrangements are underway to leave the remaining sites. A tripartite working group including the Sudanese government, AU and the UN has been set up in February 2015 to develop an exit strategy for the UNAMID from Darfur.
In June 2017, the AU and the UN decided to draw down the UNAMID by withdrawing the military personnel by 44% and that of the police component by 30%, the closure of 11 team sites in the first phase and the withdrawal of the military component from another 7 team sites in the second phase.
[These already eviscerating cuts were increased in the July 2018 UNSC re-authorization of UNAMID—ER]
• UNAMID, South Darfur discuss transfer of Mission’s premises to government | Sudan Tribune, September 14, 2018 (KHARTOUM)
South Darfur government and the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) have discussed ways to promote security and health situation in various localities, voluntary return villages and IDPs camps. On Thursday, governor of South Darfur Adam al-Faki met with a delegation from the Mission headed by Head of the UNAMID in South Darfur, Burhan Mesk Nika.
[Notably, there is no way for UNAMID to ensure that the camps it is turning over to the Khartoum regime will not be converted to military use for regular or militia forces—ER]
• UNAMID completes construction of new base in Jebel Marra | Sudan Tribune, September 12, 2018 (KHARTOUM)
An aerial photo published by the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Wednesday has shown completion of the Mission’s base in Golo, Jebel Marra area, Central Darfur State.
[The establishment of this base is grotesquely belated, given the relentless assault on civilians in the Jebel Marra area for many years—ER]
On January 28, the Sudanese government officially handed over a land to UNAMID to establish a Temporary Operating Base (TOB) in Golo, Jebel Marra. The aerial view of the newly established base shows a completed outer fence including three major gates and four observation towers.
[Only eight months later has the TOB been completed—an example of how slow and inefficient UNAMID has been. Part of the problem, of course, has been Khartoum’s obstructionism—ER]
According to the government of Central Darfur, UNAMID would contribute to paving the road linking Golo to Nertiti and Rokoro in order to facilitate movement and contacts between the residents, government officials and the Mission.
[Given the very short period of time that UNAMID will be able to operate, even in Central Darfur, the paving of roads is a gift to Khartoum—and its military vehicles—ER]
• UNAMID to cut presence in Central Darfur in October: governor | Sudan Tribune, September 2, 2018 (KHARTOUM) Governor of Central Darfur State Mohamed Ahmed Jad al-Sid said the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) would cut its presence in the state in October. The semi-official Sudan Media Center (SMC) has quoted Jad al-Sid as saying Central Darfur is witnessing full stability in all of its localities. He said the UNAMID representative in Central Darfur has vowed to cut presence of the Mission in Nertiti and Mukjar localities in October, pointing the pledge came during a recent meeting between the government of Central Darfur and the Mission.
However, the 15-member body stressed the drawdown of the mission should be based on progress against related indicators and benchmarks.
[This is disingenuous, self-serving nonsense by the UN Security Council: UNAMID has already proved that it can’t meet meaningful benchmarks for human security, and the continuing massive drawdown of troops and police units only ensures that UNAMID’s impotence grows—ER]
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A bibliography offering more comprehensive overviews of violence in Darfur in recent years will be forthcoming—ER