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
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS