political nonsense

For the first time in two years, Sudanese rebels are openly killing government soldiers and rejecting all previous cease-fires.


The latest peace agreement, signed in May and heavily backed by the United States but approved by only one rebel faction and the Sudanese government, is in disarray.

The government vows to crush the rebellion, and as its military struggles to fend off attacks, it will likely turn again to Arab militias called janjaweed to wage its counterinsurgency campaign, analysts say.

The Darfur rebels are flush with weapons taken from the Sudanese military in raids and bought through allies in Chad and Eritrea. They say that because Sudan has blocked a United Nations force from entering Darfur to protect the 2.5 million people forced from their homes there and in eastern Chad, they have a duty to stop attacks on non-Arab tribes.

“The international community will not do it,”

said Gen. Khatir Toor Khala, a rebel field commander based on the border.

“So it is for us to protect the innocent civilians of Darfur.”

With the two sides apparently bent on all-out war, and millions of displaced people and refugees caught in the middle, the people of Darfur and the aid workers who have been trying to help them await the next, seemingly inevitable onslaught.

“We don’t know what will happen next, we only fear for our lives,”

said Kaltuma Ardy, who fled attacks by the janjaweed on her village in Darfur near the Chad border three years ago. She now lives in Oure Cassoni refugee camp, a few miles from the site of the battle between rebels and government soldiers.

“We need the U.N. to come and help us so we can have peace and go back home.”

nytimes

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 23rd, 2006 at 8:10 pm and is filed under main, war, the rest of the world, sudan, UN, africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.