UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called Friday for new international action to halt violence in Darfur in a report released which highlighted the failure of negotiations and deteriorating security in the Sudanese region.
Six months after the Sudanese government promised to make efforts to end attacks on the Darfur population by pro-government militias, Annan said: "The armed groups are re-arming and the conflict is spreading outside Darfur."
"Large quantities of arms have been carried into Darfur in defiance of the Security Council decision taken in July. A build-up of arms and intensification of violence, including air attacks, suggest the security situation is deteriorating."
Annan, who went to Sudan in July with US Secretary of State Colin Powell to negotiate with the government, has made repeated warnings in recent weeks that conditions were worsening in the region in the west of Sudan.
The UN's World Food Program suspended food aid to Darfur at the end of December after a rebel attack on one town triggered deadly clashes with government forces.
Since February 2003, Sudanese troops and their militia allies have been fighting rebel groups in Darfur, who have been demanding a greater share of oil revenues for development.
According to the UN, at least 70,000 people have been killed, mainly civilians, and about 1.6 million have fled their homes.
Annan said in his report for the UN Security Council that new rebel movements are emerging and launching attacks in the area of oil facilities in Western Kordofan.
"I am concerned that we may move into a period of intense violence unless swift action is taken," the UN secretary general warned.
"The pressures on the parties to abide by their commitments are not having a perceptible effect on the ground. This leads me to conclude that we need to reconsider what measures are required to achieve improves security and protection" for the Darfur homeless. The UN had considered Darfur to be the world's biggest humanitarian crisis before the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean.
Just four days earlier, Annan had urged the Security Council to consider a harder line on Darfur, while rejecting a US request that he visit Sudan again.
The US has sought sanctions against Sudan but this has been opposed on the Security Council. The US ambassador to the UN, John Danforth, a former US envoy on Sudan, expressed his frustration with the international community in December, saying "we're getting nowhere in Darfur."
Two UN resolutions made veiled threats of sanctions against Sudan.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS