Sudan: The last ten percent – ISN
March 25th, 2008
Darfurian girl branded by janjaweed (ISN)
Despite renewed violence in Darfur and Abyei, Sudan’s government thinks the country is more or less at peace, Simon Roughneen writes for ISN Security Watch.
Since early February, Sudanese air strikes and ground attacks in western Darfur, carried out in tandem with janjaweed militia elements, have displaced between 30,000-60,000 people and left unknown numbers dead or missing.
Meanwhile, deadlock over the future status of Abyei, an oil-rich disputed region along the north-south divide in Sudan, has contributed to a recent upsurge in fighting between the southern army and local Arab pastoralists affiliated to the National Congress Party (NCP), the dominant component in the country’s national unity government.
Despite this upsurge in violence, the peace deal between north and south is already 90 percent implemented, this according to Dr Rabbi Abdul-Atti, an adviser to the Sudanese information minister, speaking to reporters in Nairobi.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) is the former southern rebel group now in uneasy government partnership with the NCP. (more…)
Zimbabwe braced for election – Sunday Business Post
March 23rd, 2008
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2008/03/23/story31422.asp
Zimbabwe will elect a new president, parliament and senate on Saturday, amid fears of post-election violence.
ZANU-PF leader and president Robert Mugabe has ruled since independence, and will run against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The Movement for Democratic Change leader was a narrow loser in the 2002 elections, which were widely believed to have been rigged. (more…)
Battle for N’djamena Could Lead to International Conflict – IslamOnline
February 6th, 2008
Policemen try to keep order as people carrying their belongings pour across the Ngueli bridge fleeing fighting in N'Djamena. Reuters Photo, Feb. 4 2008
As Chadian rebels retreat from N’djamena, the Idriss Déby régime is claiming victory over what it and its French backer describe as Sudanese-backed aggressors. For its part, the rebel coalition has described its retreat as merely tactical, telling civilians to follow the 15,000 or so that have crossed into next-door Cameroon.Either way, the stand-off holds, and Paris has stated that should the rebels attempt another attack, it will reconsider the laissez-faire stance taken during the offensive last weekend, when it moved its Mirage fighter jets away from the line of fire and restricted its soldiers to protecting expatriate civilians and helping with evacuations.In any case, the French would never let the international airport fall into rebel hands,and despite Déby’s refusal of an offer to evacuate, would not let him fall, unless there had been some dramatic about-turn in relations between the French and the rebels.
This would constitute an audacious double-crossing of Khartoum by their Chadian rebel proxies, who formed their united front after a meeting held in western Darfur during December. The Sudanese military intelligence reminded them of the task at hand—deposing Déby—that the imminent deployment of well-armed Europeans to the region, just before the rainy season, left them with little time to act.
When the rebels last tried to storm N’djamena in April 2006, they were poorly-prepared, apparently mistaking the parliament building for the more important Presidential palace, while some insurgents got lost on the unfamiliar streets. (more…)
No EUforia as Chad plans go awry – CSIS Africa Forum
February 4th, 2008
http://forums.csis.org/africa/?p=86
At a European Union (EU) foreign ministers meeting on January 28, it was finally confirmed that Ireland’s Lieutenant-General Patrick Nash would lead French, Swedish and Irish soldiers, as well as contingents from ten other contributor nations, to Chad and the northeastern Central African Republic (CAR), in an almost-4000-strong humanitarian-military mission to be known as EUFOR Chad/CAR.
Conflicting reports at time of writing suggested that Chadian rebels had taken much of Chad’s capital N’djamena in the first days of February, but with government troops continuing to fight to dislodge the Sudan-backed insurgents. The rebels may have temporarily withdrawn from N’djamena, but could well return once reinforcements arrive. (more…)
Chad, Sudan and a risky western game – ISN
February 3rd, 2008
refugee camp in Chad (ISN)
China and the West at odds in Africa over oil and refugees, as EU troops stay at home for now.
By Simon Roughneen
With Chad’s capital N’djamena possibly set to fall to a coalition of Sudan-backed rebels, the implications for the United Nations/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) remain unclear.
The likelihood is that the establishment of a client government in Chad will give Sudan’s National Congress Party (NCP), the dominant component of the Khartoum government, more scope to impose its will on Darfur, where UN peacekeepers are struggling to make any impact with their apparently stillborn mission.
Khartoum’s policy on Darfur was made very clear by its reaction to the insurgency that broke out in the region during 2003. By 2004, the Sudanese army and its Janjaweed militia vanguard were in the midst of a scorched-earth campaign that has left at least 200,000 dead and around 2.5 million languishing in camps, with another 240,000 refugees in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR). (more…)
Chad rebel movement delays EU deployment – RTÉ Morning Ireland
February 1st, 2008
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0201/morningireland.html
French role threatens Chad force neutrality – The Irish Examiner
February 1st, 2008
Last Monday foreign ministers proclaimed the imminent deployment of EUFOR – the ‘neutral and impartial’ military humanitarian mission to Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR). In the days since, developments in Chad and elsewhere have underlined just dangerous and complex a region the almost-4000 Europeans are to work in.
The first batch of what will be 400 Irish troops saw their deployment postponed last night, as fighting continued close to N’djamena, after Chadian rebels drove all the way from their Darfur base to within 60km of the capital, in the few days since the EU announcement. (more…)
Chad’s complexities a barrier for Eufor – The Irish Times
February 1st, 2008
Refugee camp in Chad (Irish Times website)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0202/index.html
Events in Chad have postponed the deployment of the Irish-led EU force. Simon Roughneen explains why, if the troops ever are deployed, they will enter a hornet’s nest of competing and overlapping national, regional and international interests.
The UN-mandated European Union force due in Chad and the Central African Republic aims to protect refugees from Sudan’s scorched-earth Darfur region and displaced people within eastern Chad itself.
These are noble and necessary goals, but are easier said than done.
Best intentions aside, the EU force, known by its acronym Eufor, will be seen as a protagonist in a nasty and convoluted power-play, with Chad’s civil conflict dovetailing with that in Darfur, and an escalating Sudan-Chad war, where the two sides are backed by China and France respectively. (more…)
EU enters Chad powderkeg – The Irish Catholic
January 31st, 2008
EU troops ready for deployment (EU Observer)
With 400 Irish troops set to deploy to Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) next month, confusion and looming violence threaten to undermine the almost-4000-strong EU force (EUFOR), writes Simon Roughneen
“I will be there in uniform, without arms, with a UN logo. The EU will be there with arms, with the EU logo. The French [troops stationed in Chad for more than two decades and who support Chadian President Idriss Déby] will be there, with the same uniforms as the French working for the EU, but with a French logo, and with a different interest, etc., etc.”
This from Lieutenant-Colonel Jan Vall, deputy chief of the military liaison officers of the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), which was set up under the same UN Security Council resolution that mandated the EU to send what is a priori a refugee protection force to these remote and desolate central African countries.
A quick trawl of NGO websites shows a fresh recruitment drive for PR and information personnel needed in Chad, as aid agencies fret about how distinguish themselves from EUFOR and the new UN mission, not to mention the 1200 French soldiers there on a bilateral basis, supporting Chad’s unelected and unpopular President in a civil war that is fast turning into a full-blown international conflict between Chad and Sudan. (more…)
Failing to Set Up, Set Up to Fail – IslamOnline
January 23rd, 2008
African Union troops change their berets in a ceremony marking the transfer of peacekeeping authority from the AU to UNAMID in El Fasher, Sudan, Dec. 31, 2007 (Reuters Photo)
Speaking at the former leftist stronghold Wad Medani back November 17 last year, Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir told listeners, “The elements from Sweden and Norway are in fact intelligence from Mossad and the CIA.”
These Scandinavians are military engineers which were set to participate in the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur ( UNAMID) deployed to Darfur since Jan. 1, 2008. The Sudanese President has similarly resisted deployment of Thai and Nepalese battalions, demanding that the UNAMID force be all-African, save for Chinese and Pakistani contingents. As things stand, just 9000 of the projected 26000 troops are on the ground, something UN and Sudanese officials will haggle over at the AU summit set for January 31 in Addis Ababa.
While Al-Bashir’s misunderstanding – willful or otherwise - of the profound disdain for the United States and Israel held by secular, “post-modern” European elites – of which foreign policy wonks in Sweden and Norway might well be a vanguard – is perhaps a topic for another day. What matters in the immediate term is that after years of lily-livered western diplomacy UNAMID is now set up to fail in Darfur. Recall that UNAMID is a watered-down version of the U.N. peacekeeping operation originally proposed by the Aug. 31, 2006 UN Security Council Resolution 1706. Proponents of that force did little to resist Khartoum and Beijing collaboration to scupper its deployment.
Stalling UN Forces (more…)
