An update on Darfur and interlocking wars
Posted by Sappho on June 18th, 2010 filed in Darfur/Chad/Central African Republic
It’s been a while since I’ve given you a Darfur/Chad/Central African Republic update. Before I get into the recent news, here’s a brief summary of the interlocking conflicts.
- Darfur: Conflict there has been ongoing since 2003.
- Southern Sudan: The civil war between northern and southern Sudan was settled in 2005 with a Comprehensive Peace Agreement. According to that agreement, South Sudan gets to vote on independence in 2011; the time for that vote is drawing near.
- Chad: Rebels are fighting in eastern Chad against President Deby. There’s a lot of spillover from the Darfur conflict, and some of the same ethnic groups are involved (the Janjaweed are involved in both conflicts). Here’s a BBC timeline for Chad.
- Central African Republic: Civil war in this country has been entangled with the conflicts in neighboring Chad and Sudan. The Central African Republic is also one of several countries plagued by the Lord’s Resistance Army.
- Uganda: The Lord’s Resistance Army originates here, as a group purportedly defending the rights of the Acholi people (while throwing in a bunch of religious ideology). This group has since moved between Uganda, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and has been a scourge everywhere it goes.
- The Democratic Republic of Congo: The civil war here was related to the genocide in Rwanda, and eventually involved foreign armies from Uganda, Rwanda, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Although this Second Congo War officially ended in 2003, armed conflict continued in parts of the DRC to this day. The Lord’s Resistance Army also operates here, as if the DRC didn’t have enough problems without them.
- France: Chad and the Central African Republic are former French colonies, and France is still heavily involved in political conflicts there.
- UN: The UN has maintained peacekeeping forces in Darfur (UNAMID), Sudan (UNMIS), Chad and the Central African Republic (MINURCAT), and the DRC (MONUC). The UNAMID peacekeeping mission is a joint mission with the African Union, while the MINURCAT peacekeeping mission replaced one sponsored by the EU. The International Criminal Court is also involved in some of these conflicts, as it has indictments out both against President Bashir of Sudan and against Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Now for the update.
Darfur: At the UN Security Council this week,
An integrated approach to stability in Sudan, linking peace in Darfur to preparations for the January referendum on the future of Southern Sudan, was presented to the Security Council by officials of the United Nations and the African Union this morning.
Two Darfur rebel leaders surrendered to the International Criminal Court to be tried in connection with the killing of twelve African Union peacekeepers in 2007.
South Sudan: The UN congratulated the partners to the 2005 peace agreement on the formation of a new government. Meanwhile, women in Southern Sudan gathered on June 9th to participate in a one day open peace forum to identify the priorities and needs of women.
A Namibian woman who is the head of the UNMIS child protection unit speaks of her experiences.
Chad: The Sahelian belt of Chad is facing one of its worst nutrition crises in recent years. Medecins Sans Frontiers has called for increased deployment of assistance to stem alarming child malnutrition.
Chad is not the only country facing this malnutrition crisis. Most countries located in the Sahel region are experiencing an increased number of malnourished children.
MSF has also already started emergency nutrition programmes, or reinforced existing ones, in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Sudan.
Chad also faces problems finding clean water, and geologists are X-raying the desert to look for new sources of water. Finally, IRIN news has an analysis of the problems of demining in Chad.
The Central African Republic: The UN is distributing mosquito nets in this country.
Though a peace agreement ended the long running civil war in this country in 2007, ethnic strife and banditry has continued to threaten civilians since then. The most recent stories out of the CAR, though, involve the LRA. Late in May, for example, it was reported that villagers in the CAR killed two LRA rebels in self-defense.
The Democratic Republic of Congo: The first batch of MONUC soldiers departed the DRC, as the UN closes the peacekeeping mission there.
A human rights defender’s death has aroused suspicion.
Joseph Kony’s three-year-old daughter is among a group of children stranded in Gulu after being rescued from the jungles of the DRC.
The UN is airlifting baby gorillas to a sanctuary, in an effort to preserve and endangered species.
Human Rights Watch reported that the Lord’s Resistance Army has killed 96 civilians and abducted dozens more between January and April 2010 in the DRC, and urged the US to swiftly implement legislation that Congress recently passed encouraging efforts against this group.
Uganda: Ten Ugandan soldiers, deployed to the Central African Republic to hunt down Joseph Kony, head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, were killed by Sudanese Janjaweed militia. Uganda is also hosting a major international review conference on the International Criminal Court next month, and faces conflicting pressures on whether it should invite Sudanese President al-Bashir, who has been indicted by the ICC.