Noli Irritare Leones

Analysis and commentary: Before I get into my own account of the latest news out of Sudan and the other interlocking conflict regions of Chad, the Central African Republic, and Uganda, I want to recommend the Head Heeb’s excellent post While the Sahel Burns, which comments much more intelligently than I can manage on what’s happening in this region.

Drima the Sudanese Thinker expresses his intense displeasure with the president of Sudan in Omar al-Bashir the Propaganda Machine Thinks We’re All Retarded Ignorant Fools. And another Sudanese blogger, blogging from Sudan, appeals to her president on behalf of the people of Darfur.

Now for the news.

South Sudan: In the wake of fighting between Sudan’s army and former rebels in the south that has killed hundreds of people, Penilica reflects on how Peace is relative…

It is serious stuff in many ways if 300 people get killed, wether soldiers or civilians. I can’t help regretting this self-empowering tendency among the peace-loving NGOs (my own in particular) to overestimate development towards peace in our rethorics. It is a fine balance to maintain a positive peace-believing approach in favour of a more realistic and pessimistic – like i.e. in order to fundraise and inform people in the Western world about the African reality. Within this process we often turn the blind eye to the pit falls. With ceasefires and peace agreements comes development and opportunities, and it’s tempting to go for that.

But in Sudan’s case where the CPA certainly has proven unsettled business about the entitlement to or division of the resourcefull south, peace is not real. Not yet. Most of the time it’s too bloody complicated, but what to do, when people don’t want more bad news from Africa?

Meanwhile, displaced southern Sudanese are registering to return home. And the Gates Foundation has granted the UN Refugee Agency $10 million for relief work in South Sudan.

Darfur: The International Criminal Court “has to determine whether Sudan is willing and able to prosecute Darfur suspects.” And the Nigerian commander of African Union troops in Darfur wants more troops. And Sudan has rejected a proposal to bring UN troops into Darfur, as the African Union troops mandate has been extended for another six months. While rejecting UN troops, Sudan has agreed to accept non-military UN support in Darfur.

A Global Day of Action for Darfur and a Sudanese embassy vigil are being planned for December 10th. There will also be a weekend of prayer for Darfur from December 8th through 10th.

Chad: Evacuations of non-essential relief staff are now underway in eastern Chad. At the same time, the UN has airlifted 110 tons of aid to replace looted stocks in Chad.

As the Chad army battles rebels in the eastern town of Guereda, Amnesty International has released a report criticizing Chad’s own government for failing to protect its civilians from brutal Janjaweed attacks

“We have seen a dramatic upsurge in ever more brutal attacks on civilians which have occurred further and further into Chad, yet the Chadian military and police are not even making a token effort to protect their own citizens. The government faces a real threat from the rebel forces. However, even when they have the means, they have still refused pleas for help from their own civilians,” said Alex Neve, member of the Amnesty International delegation.

Preliminary findings from the Amnesty International delegation to Chad include the:

Spread of attacks on civilians by Janjawid from the border into areas well inside Chad including devastating attacks on the villages of Bandiakao, Badiya and Kerfi during the first two weeks of November, some 150 kilometres inside the country;…

Etc., see the report for more details. At this point, I have to insert the editorial comment that I find this aspect of the situation in Chad really weird. This isn’t the first time that Amnesty International has complained that the Chad government is failing to protect its own civilians. And, from what I can tell, the civilians being attacked by Arab militias are from the same tribe as the president of Chad, a tribe which dominates the Chadian government, so what’s the deal here? The only thing I can figure is that maybe the army’s now too focused on protecting Deby’s hold on power from rebel attacks to spare much force for protecting civilians from Janjaweed attacks? If anyone else can tell me what’s going on here, feel free to add information in the comments. Meanwhile, here’s a sad account of how conflicts that were once settled by local chiefs are growing violent, as ethnic violence spreads from Darfur to eastern Chad. And, though the Chad army doesn’t seem to be managing to protect its own civilians from the Janjaweed, Chad has agreed in principle to accept a UN force in its border region.

Central African Republic: Government troops backed by the French army have retaken the northern town of Birao, which lies on a major trade route to Chad and Sudan. Reliefweb has a situational base map of the CAR. Jennifer Brea notes how the presence of French troops in Chad, the Ivory Coast, and the Central African Republic show that France’s influence in Africa is hardly waning. And Global Voices Online points to commentary by a blogging Central African Republic presidential candidate.

Uganda: Since July 2006, the government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army have been negotiating in Juba over a possible ceasefire, in talks mediated by the new Government of South Sudan; Penilica writes on What are the Juba Peace Talks? Rev. Willy Akena writes about Acholi children’s hope of return to their own villages

A visit to one of the camps in Gulu can be both heartbreaking and sight of smile, as children normally gather around visitors and may even join the tour in the camp.

And then there’s a piece from the Sub-Saharan African Round Table which only makes me realize how lost I am, as far as understanding the background of what’s going on in Uganda. Samuel Olara accuses President Museveni of trying to

destroy the “martial tribe”, the Acholi, once and for all. Consequently in 1987-1988, Museveni recruited and armed the Karimojong cattle rustlers, and in an artful deception, used them to re-enforce his National Resistance Army’s (NRA) in its scorched-earth policy to rid Acholiland of cattle and cripple the local economy permanently.

The charge appears to be that the cattle rustlers, armed to fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army, have also been attacking innocent Acholi.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Africa news and blogwatch, Darfur/Chad/Central African Republic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.