Sudanese villagers forced a man to marry a goat after he was found having sex with it; the man also was required to pay the goat’s owner 15,000 Sudanese dinars as dowry.
“We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together,”
Mr Alifi, the goats former owner, said.
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The Egyptian government has announced plans to deport over 600 Sudanese migrants, just days after police killed close to 30 unarmed Sudanese on Friday.
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Only months after the US accused Khartoum of carrying out genocide in Darfur, Sudan has become a crucial intelligence asset to the CIA.
“I quite understand that the war on terrorism means dealing with bad actors, but to fly in one of Sudan’s chief committers of what Washington has formally described as genocide is deeply disturbing,” said an independent Sudan analyst, Eric Reeves.
Sudan remains on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. One senior Sudanese official told Ken Silverstein of the LA TImes that the country had achieved “complete normalization” of relations with the CIA.
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The U.N. Security Council asked the International Criminal Court to investigate atrocities in Sudan. This is the world’s first permanent and independent criminal court for judging war crimes, which formed despite US opposition three years ago. Darfur will put the court to its first major test.
Some diplomats say the UN assigned this case to the court because it would allow the Security Council to postpone direct intervention and nonetheless appear to be taking action.
Leaders from more than 50 nations pledged more than $4.5 billion for Sudan in a donors’ conference here today, but one official after another warned that continuing violence in Darfur would undermine the peace agreement they were here to support.
The United States pledged between $1 billion and $2 billion to support the north-south peace agreement. The European Commission promised about $760 million. Britain offered $545 million and Norway, $250 million. Several officials speaking at the conference praised the donor nations for their pledges while urging them to make the actual payments. Pledges made at conferences like these are often followed by failure to make all of the payments promised.
A report by the United Nations and the World Bank found that Sudan needs $2.6 billion in outside aid to meet its $7.9 billion budget for humanitarian assistance and reconstruction in the south over the next two years.
The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to authorize a 10,000-strong peacekeeping force for the south of the country. The official mission of the peacekeepers will be to monitor the agreement signed between the government and southern rebels.
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10,000 people are dying each month in Darfur.
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