U.N. Has Little Effect In Darfur

Despite the newly painted blue helmets, the United Nations-African
Union peacekeepers in Darfur have yet to make an impact.

From Newsweek Magazine:

From where Fatuma Ibrahim sits, nothing in Darfur has changed. She and her four children are still living in a refugee camp in the western region of Sudan, in a stick-and-mud-walled hut with a ragged scrap of white tarpaulin for a roof. They still rely on international aid agencies to provide food and water. And there is apparently still no international force to protect her. About the United Nations force that is supposed to be protecting Darfur's displaced, she says, "We do not see them."

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More News On Darfur

Asylum-seekers are sent back to Darfur -- Independent
Sudan intends to run elections without Darfur – rebel official -- Sudan Tribune
Darfur peace partner lashes out at Sudan ruling party -- Sudan Tribune
Sudan's president reiterates reaching peaceful solution to Darfur issue -- China View
Sudan / Rebels kill 157 sudanese soldiers in north Darfur -- African Press Organization

My Comment: No one has any influence in Darfur right now. It is now everyone for themselves.

Sudan Says More Than 200 Killed In The Weekend's Battle For Capital

From Yahoo News:

KHARTOUM, Sudan - More than 200 people were killed in fighting around Sudan's capital, the defence minister announced Tuesday, in the first official comment on casualties from last weekend's rebel assault on Khartoum.

Defence Minister General Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein told parliament that the rebels of Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement had suffered a crushing defeat, with at least two-thirds of the 180 vehicles involved in the assault destroyed, in comments carried by the official SUNA news agency.

For their part, the rebels admitted they had been defeated but promised further attacks on the capital unless the festering situation in the western region of Darfur where 200,000 people have died, was dealt with.

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My Comment: The Sudanese Government was definitely caught by surprise when rebels from the Darfur region attacked their capital. This is a warning sign to the Sudanese authorities that their policy of ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region will be producing a "blow-back" situation for them in the not so distant future.

Should anyone be surprised?

Darfur Dead 'Could Number 300,000'

From The Guardian:

The total number of deaths in the Sudanese region of Darfur could have risen to 300,000 in the five years since violence broke out, according to new figures from a top United Nations official.

John Holmes, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, told a security council meeting yesterday that the previous number of 200,000 dead in fighting between rebel groups, some backed by the Khartoum government, was last tallied in 2006.

"That figure must be much higher now, perhaps half as much again," Holmes said to the council. Answering questions from reporters, he later qualified the estimated number, by admitting the death toll of 300,000 "is not a very scientifically-based figure" because there have been no new mortality studies in Darfur, but "it's a reasonable extrapolation."

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More from the Washington Times.

More From The International Herald Tribune:UN Officials Say Darfur Conflict Is Worsening

My Comment: Quibbling over numbers. After 5 years, this is what the international community is now concerned about.