Africa blogwatch and a little background on Darfur/Chad/CAR
Africa Unchained is in the process of reporting on African Diaspora foundations; here’s a post on GEANCO Foundation, a US-based foundation to “design, develop, and manage medical, educational and athletic facilities in the African country of Nigeria.”
A new African blogging initiative to shed light on events in Darfur. Via Global Voices Online.
Egyptian bloggers bring to national attention a wave of sexual assaults.
It’s still flooding in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, but I’ll refer those interested in following that to Reliefweb, until I see something dramatically new. Reliefweb also has a Uganda Humanitarian Situation Report 16 Oct – 15 Nov 2006, in which you can learn about the addendum signed November 1st in ongoing peace talks in Juba between the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a cholera outbreak, and population movements.
One point of interest is the way in which fighting in the Sudan interlocks with several neighboring countries. I think at some point I need to step back from just posting headlines and get (and post) more background on this. Notice how the conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda is related to events in the Sudan:
The addendum defines actions that will constitute violations of the agreement by both parties and outlines additional roles and obligations of the Government of South Sudan (GoSS), the mediator in the talks.
Hold on a minute. Is the government of Sudan mediating a conflict in Uganda? The same government that is, by many accounts, perpetrating genocide in Darfur? No, in fact, the Goverment of South Sudan is a separate entity, going back to an agreement signed in 2002, that allowed South Sudan self-determination. This ended an earlier phase of bloody civil war (one which had scattered the Lost Boys of the Sudan), but it didn’t bring peace to the Sudan as a whole, since conflict erupted soon afterward in Darfur. See the timeline in CBC: News in Depth: Sudan.
Now, to return to Uganda, and how it interacts with the Sudan:
Some LRA rebels were sighted in Pader but there were no violent activities registered.
By contrast, violent incidents were reported in Southern Sudan. According to the United Nations Department for Security and Safety (UNDSS), between October 17th and 29th, there were six violent incidents during which over 50 deaths were recorded, the majority being civilians. It remains unclear who the perpetrators of the attacks were. The fluidity of the situation and the reports of attacks on armed convoys leaves accessibility hanging in the balance. Already, the situation has forced the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to suspend the repatriation of refugees to Southern Sudan.
LRA movements from South Sudan southwards to Northern Uganda have put security forces on high alert in the West Nile region. According to UNDSS reports, a group of six LRA moved into Moyo District under orders from Vincent Otti. One of the group members surrendered, leaving five others at large.
So, you’ve got a resistance army that’s been fighting in Uganda roaming back and forth across the border to the Sudan. And the Government of South Sudan has been mediating between this resistance army and the government of Uganda.
Now, let’s jump over to Chad and the CAR, where, SudanWatch reports, France is sending more troops to provide logistical support and intelligence, and where thousands are newly displaced. With Janjaweed raiding across the border into southeastern Chad and northeastern CAR, there’s clearly some connection between the crisis in Darfur, and what’s happening in Chad and the CAR. But how are they connected? A Stratfor analysis on November 17th reports
The consequences of the unrest in Darfur have gone beyond Sudan’s borders; violence has spilled over into neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR). The Janjaweed have relied on clan and ethnic linkages that flow across the porous borders between Darfur, southeastern Chad and northeastern CAR to call for help against the Darfur rebels. In turn, the arms that Khartoum has funneled to the Janjaweed have ended up in the hands of Chadian and CAR rebels who, besides fighting in Darfur, have also taken aim at their own regimes in N’Djamena and Bangui, which the rebels say are corrupt and out of touch.
Now, Chad is currently led, and has been led since 1990 (see BBC timeline) by President Idriss Deby. He replaced now exiled Chadian leader Hissene Habre, who is soon to be placed on trial in Senegal for crimes against humanity (notice that rather a long time passed between the time he was deposed and the time he is being put on trial – during that time he has been in exile in Senegal). Deby himself, when he was operating a rebel movement rather than leading a government, operated out of Sudan, with the backing of Libya.
There was an armed rebellion against Deby from 1998 to 2002, when Libya brokered a peace deal. Still more deals needed to be signed with different sets of rebels in 2003, and there are still more rebels fighting against Deby now. I’ve found a French language paper that apparently represents the views of the current set of rebels, but, never having studied French, I haven’t made anything of it yet (it was on that page of French news links on Chad that I posted earlier this week).
The border between Chad and the Sudan does not align nicely with the boundaries between ethnic groups (I don’t think any border in Africa does), and so I know that part of what’s going on across that porous border is that there are ethnic ties in Chad with the same people who are suffering in Darfur. And presumably ethnic ties in the Sudan with the rebels in Chad. But I’m not sure how this works out in detail.
And that’s not even getting into the CAR yet, which faces a similar situation to Chad.
There also seems to be controversy within Africa on whether UN troops or African Union troops should be used as peacekeepers in Darfur. Eritrea is opposed to UN troops in Darfur, and Libya appears to support Eritrea’s position on the conflict in Central Africa in general, as does Egypt.
That’s about as much background as I know on how Chad and the CAR tie in to the conflict in Darfur. If anyone else has further clarification, feel free to enlighten me in the comments.
UPDATE: Some interesting stuff from Drima, The Sudanese Thinker: About Darfur (note: one of the root causes of the conflict is water shortage – I’m thinking sometime I should work on a post, or a series of posts, on water problems in Africa) and there’s a Sudanese blogosphere in the making. Both via SudanWatch. I think I will now fill up my Bloglines with Sudanese blogs, still looking for blogs in Chad and the CAR.
FURTHER UPDATE: Much more interesting stuff on the conflict with the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda at Pernille’s What to think when visiting an IDP Camp in Northern Uganda? Pernille, a Danish relief worker in Uganda, also recommends the new blog of the Rev. Willy Akena of the Diocese of Northern Uganda.