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Photo credit for "Darfur" graphics: © 2007 see embedded video» Photo credit for "Africa" graphic, above: © 2005 Jennifer Lewis
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MORE THAN 10 REBEL FACTIONS REPRESENTED AT TANZANIA TALKS, AIMED AT FORGING UNITY FOR NEGOTIATIONS WITH KHARTOUM 8 August 2007 Arusha, Tanzania, played host last week to leaders from "more than 10 Darfur rebel groups", as the groups held talks to work out common ground and a structure for negotiating peace with the Sudan government, in light of the coming deployment of 26,000 UN-mandated peacekeepers for Darfur. The conflict which began as an effort to stamp out regional differences and secure control for Khartoum has become a crisis of global interest and one which the United Nations now seeks to put an end to. [Full Story] UN SECURITY COUNCIL ORDERS 26,000 PEACEKEEPERS FOR DARFUR, LARGEST MISSION IN WORLD Darfur, beset by years of bloody internecine violence, with the Khartoum-backed janjaweed militia killing civilians in numbers the US government has officially declared to be genocide. For years, human rights groups have pleaded with the international community to intervene, with or without the support of the Khartoum government. Now, the UN Security Council has ordered the world's largest peacekeeping mission to secure Darfur. [Full Story] AFRICAN LEADERS DISCUSS PLAN TO UNITE CONTINENT UNDER SINGLE FEDERAL SYSTEM Libyan president Muammar Qadhafi is not the first to propose uniting the continent under a single government, but his proposal is bold from any perspective. At the African Union summit in Accra, the capital of Ghana, Qadhafi has proposed that African heads of state should begin the process of integrating the diverse governments and systems under one central, democratic government. [Full Story] DEVELOPMENT BECOMES A NEW GLOBAL IDEOLOGY Ideologically-driven revolutions have sought to implant Utopian movements where authoritarian regimes once stood, but all too often, they have brought about new authoritarian regimes, which view dissenters as immoral or unthinking pawns of the old regime, and therefore, a universal threat. Now, Foreign Policy magazine has asked the question of whether "development", as an international policy agenda, is becoming the new universalizing ideology, with all the relevant risks. [Full Story] DARFUR REFUGEE CRISIS WORSENS, STABILIZATION FORCE NEEDED The peace agreement signed between the main rebel faction in Darfur and the Khartoum government last May was tenuous at best from the outset, and seems in serious jeopardy of failing. The desperate situation in Darfur is now deteriorating, as violence against civilians not only continues but appears to be escalating, and foreign forces remain ineffectual. [Full Story] DARFUR AGAIN VERGES ON MASS KILLING, MILLIONS IN PERIL The troubled western region of Sudan, Darfur, is again at the center of a kind of perfect storm of cynicism, ignorance and neglect. Even as the UN Security Council has voted to authorize a force of 20,000 "blue helmet" peacekeepers, incorporating the 7,000 African Union (AU) soldiers already in the region, Sudan's ruler Omar al-Bashir has ordered the AU out and massed 10,000 soldiers on the edge of Darfur. [Full Story] UN NAMES 10 MOST UNDER-REPORTED STORIES FOR 2006 Every year, the United Nations publishes a list of the 10 most serious stories most overlooked by global press, world governments and international bodies. The list often includes multiple crisis situations which could degenerate into full-scale war. Developing nations, whose situations are often misunderstood or dismissed by news media, as too complicated, intractable, or of marginal relevance, take the spotlight this year. [Full Story] AMNESTY REPORTS INTERNATIONAL ARMS TRADE 'OUT OF CONTROL' Amnesty International has published a new report examining the international arms trade, and its findings indicate there is little control on the expanding web of private interests seeking to profit from a proliferation of dangerous weapons. The report also illustrates the ways in which this scattering of dangerous weapons has lead to severe human rights abuses. [Full Story] CHAD CONFLICT RISK IN TURBULENT REGION In the region of the Chad-Sudan border, it is Sudan that has won most of the outside world's attention in recent years. This has been due to separate civil wars with rebels in the east, south and west of the country, the peace deal with the southern rebels and the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur. Now Chad, which has taken in huge numbers of refugees fleeing the genocide in Darfur, has a severe crisis with its own stability. [Full Story] US BROADCASTERS BRUSH DARFUR ASIDE, FAVOR JACKSON TRIAL A new study shows major US broadcasters have brushed genocide in Darfur aside, while giving widespread coverage to the trial of popstar Michael Jackson. Glolablinfo.org writes that "U.S. broadcast media are failing to provide even minimal coverage of the ongoing crisis". [Full Story] SOUTHERN REBEL LEADER NOW SUDAN VP IN UNITY GOVERNMENT Sudan swore in southern former rebel chief John Garang as the first vice president of its new unity government, on Saturday. Garang's taking office is a major step toward a civil process in the wake of a brutal civil war that lasted over two decades and left more than two million dead, but the country is still roiled by violence in Darfur in the west and now by conflict with rebel groups in the east. [Full Story] DARFUR REFUGEE CRISIS STILL STEEP, UNRESOLVED The ethnic cleansing campaign in Darfur, western Sudan, continues to this day, and new information is coming to light about the plight of refugees to the Chad border. Journalist Sorious Samura's documentary Surviving Sudan, presented on the Discovery/[NY]Times Channel, follows Samura's travels with a refugee family fleeing wartorn Darfur, heading for UN-sanctioned camps in eastern Chad. [Full Story]
DARFUR CRISIS IMPERILS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS The refugee crisis in Darfur, in western Sudan, is deepening, with more Sudanese seeking refuge in the dangerous neighboring country of Chad. The UN has designated the Darfur crisis the world's worst humanitarian disaster at present. The UN has cited incidents of mass killing that it classifies as ethnic cleansing, carried out by government backed Arab militia. The ongoing violence has made the distribution of aid extremely complicated... [Full Story] CRISIS IN WESTERN SUDAN: FOOD, EXILE, VIOLENCE The World Food Programme has said that some 50,000 displaced people in Western Sudan are in need of food aid. 875 metric tons of food were delivered to the region, to serve an estimated number of 50,000. Ongoing civil conflict in North Darfur has prevented delivery of UN food aid since November, putting roughly 1 million civilians at risk... [Full Story] REFUGEE CRISIS ON CHAD BORDER The World Food Programme reports a growing humanitarian crisis on the Sudanese-Chad border. According to WFP: "About 95,000 refugees (including up to 30,000 during December) have fled fighting between forces loyal to the Government in Khartoum and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), as well as tribal/ethnic clashes." Amid increasing violence, the refugee situation, with health risks and hunger, has deteriorated rapidly. [Full Story] |
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