UN peacekeepers in Darfur, despite being severely under-equipped and under-manned, can and must do far more to protect civilians in the war-torn Sudanese region, aid groups said in a report yesterday.
The joint UN-African Union force known as UNAMID is “in danger of becoming the world’s latest broken promise,” said the report by the Darfur Consortium, a coalition of more than 40 aid groups operating in Africa.
This is because the Sudanese government is failing to let it deploy fully, because the UN and the African Union have not given it their full political backing, and because donor countries have not fulfilled their pledges to support the mission, it said.
But despite this, the force, which has shown “some small examples of the positive impact it could have in improving lives in Darfur,” could be doing a lot more while it waits for its full deployment, said the Darfur Consortium.
The Darfur conflict broke out in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum and state-backed militias.
The UN has said that 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have been displaced. Khartoum puts the number of dead at 10,000.
The UNAMID mission took over from a small African Union force on Dec. 31, but only 7,600 troops and 1,500 police have been deployed, barely a third of the projected total of 19,500 soldiers and 6,500 policemen.
The Darfur Consortium report said that “while UNAMID does not have the capacity to respond to large-scale fighting, it must begin to respond forcibly to the daily, smaller attacks on civilians.”
It should begin accompanying men and women to protect them from attack when they go looking for firewood or to markets.
It must also “increase UNAMID presence across Darfur, expand patrols inside and outside of camps [for displaced people],” the report urged.
The consortium urged donor countries to back their pledges and deploy the troops they promised and asked the UN and the AU to give the force their full political backing, and requested Khartoum to allow deployment.
It said that “donor countries must provide the necessary basic equipment, including 18 transport helicopters, at least four more tactical helicopters and six transport vehicles.”
Seven peacekeepers died and 22 were wounded in an ambush by heavily armed militia on July 8, the deadliest in a series of attacks on UNAMID personnel.
UN officials said on Friday that Sudan government planes had bombed Darfur this week despite a highly publicized peace pledge from Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir during a visit to the region.
Also See: [SOCIETY] : Three men, three motorbikes, one dream
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS