Tensions seem to be cooling down in Sudan

With all of the conflict that has been going on in the Darfur region of Sudan, since 2003, millions of people have fled to refugee camps in eastern Chad, or they have become Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s).  However, since early 2011, more than 100,000 people have returned back to their homes in Darfur. This surprised me since the conflict has been going on for decades, and no end seemed to be near. According to Janet Anderson, in her article Sudan: Darfur Refugees Still Fear Returning Home, she says that from the year 2012, to the year 2011, violence has dropped a staggering 70%! With other conflicts in the world, it is pretty rare for tensions to drop that quickly. But as the article’s title suggests, people still fear to return home. The main reason expressed by the IDP’s as to why they fear returning home is the evermore lack of the feeling of security. Women are still getting raped and they don’t feel like the government would care enough to protect them. I came across a number that pretty much negated the fact that 100,000 IDP’s had returned to Darfur…as of October, 2011 it is said that 70,000 more people had fled the Darfur region of Sudan. It seems like the well-known saying, “100,000 steps forward, and 70,000 steps back. All of the talk about 100,000 people returning to their homes, that is still a very small number to the total amount of IDP’s, it is said that there are at least 2 million IDP’s in the Darfur region and other parts of Sudan. But why are so many people skeptical about returning home?

            The Khartoum government and the Liberation movement signed the Doha agreement in July of 2011, and one of the agreements that was spelt out in Doha was that the Khartoum had to “establish the right security, political, economic and social conditions in order for people to return ‘voluntarily, in safety and dignity’. The refugees are not buying this statement in the least bit; they still fear the fact that soldiers are coming in to villages without warning and raping women, killing children and the men. So it is hard to say how safe Darfur is actually becoming, my opinion is that it is still better to wait it out longer until more laws are passed to ensure the security of the civilians.

            

Abductions and Bombers

Rebels in Darfur abducted an estimated 50 peacekeepers from the United Nations, says Voice of America, on February 20^th 2012. The rebels, part of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said that the abduction happened because the UN representatives entered into the rebel camp without permission, which obviously they did not appreciate. There was a suspicion that some there were Sudanese Agents within the group as well, which raised the awareness of the rebels. Now, onto the overhead bombings that have been occurring in the Sudan area, Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times said he was with a family in the mountains of Sudan when he heard the sound of an Antonov Bomber going overhead. When Kristof heard the noise he didn’t no what to do at the moment, but the family was already in motion. The Nuba people have been hiding in caves in the Nuba Mountains ever since the bombing started. The Sudan Government has been trying very hard to cut off supply lines to the Nuba Mountains, in an effort to get rid of all the remaining families hiding in the mountains. Kristof was also in a village called Dar, and heard first hand how dedicated these rebels are to bring down the regime of Omar Bashir. While in the village of Dar, Kristof was talking to General Nimeri Morat, of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), who said “We will fight the Omar Bashir regime until we die…then our children will fight.” I see a long, long rebellion ahead for the South Sudanese.

Food shortage and Chinese workers

Today on Vatican Radio, it was reported that due to the amount of people returning to South Sudan, internal security and border security, South Sudan would run out of food in the next year. UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has released a statement that says that South Sudan will be producing half of what they need in food for the year 2012. It is estimated that between, 420,000 and 500,000 metric tons will be produced. Which to me sounds like a lot but evidentially it is not a lot at all. In other news (I feel like a news anchor), Newsday said that the 29 Chinese workers that were abducted by Sudanese were released yesterday (February 8^th, 2012) and taken by Red Cross to Kenya. The Chinese workers were attacked while working on January 29^th, 2012. It is reported that 17 had managed to escape and one body was identified as one of the workers, was found dead. 

Two killed in South Sudan

On Thursday, January 26, 2012, which marked the third day that the new governor was appointed, two South Sudanese were killed during demonstrations against the governor, says the Sudan Tribune. The protests started when supporters of the former governor, Abdul Hamid Musa Kasha, was being replaced by Ismail Hamad. The people who saw the events transpire said that protestors took to the streets and started to burn tires in the middle of the street. The police did not care for this at all, and started to shoot tear gas canisters and live bullets into the crowd to get them to disperse and leave the streets. In this dispute, two more were injured and about twelve were sent away injured. 

A wee bit of background information

As one who did not know much about the conflict in Darfur region of Sudan, I had to do a little bit of research to learn what it was all about. I had seen a lot of bumper stickers and many posters that said “Save Darfur” and I had always wanted to know what it meant but never got around to it. I told a friend that I had not known what it was and I got a look of severe confusion as if to say, “You’re joking right?” I was not.   So bear with me as I give a little bit of background information about the conflict. Upon researching I found a good source of information from BBC News Online. The conflict started shortly after Sudan gained independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956. With a long line of incompetent rulers, there have been many human rights issues that have taken place. The Civil war between Khartoum and Southern Sudan, there have been an estimated 1.2 million deaths – which is a staggering amount of deaths to happen domestically – and around 1.5 million dollars a day for the economy. In 1972, a peace agreement was made between the two regions that marked the end of the first Civil War. This peace between them did not last long, when in the early 1980’s aggression between them could not go unanswered. With more frequent attacks from the Sudan’s Peoples Liberation Army, this lead to a full fledged Civil War between the Sudanese people. There have been many attempts at peace however, with the last one dissolving in 1994. I believe that will be a good base of knowledge for this conflict, if there are weeks when there is not much activity, I may come back and fill in the blank spots of the history as I see fit. If you care to do more research there are plenty of places to do so. The information I did for this blog, as stated, was from BBC News Online.