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/ 24 September 2007
Oxfam could withdraw from Sudan’s violent Darfur region if security worsens, with attacks on its staff there hindering one of the aid agency’s largest operations, its country director said on Monday. Caroline Nursey, who has worked in Sudan for four years, also said the crisis in Darfur had drained donor money from other areas of Sudan
The leaders of France and Britain on Friday revived the spectre of sanctions against Khartoum if progress is not made on a Darfur ceasefire and upcoming political talks. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a joint editorial in the Times in London that sanctions could be used to bring peace to Darfur.
Darfur rebels accused the government of bombing South Darfur on Thursday, the latest attack in an aerial campaign that has driven thousands of people from their homes over the past month. ”There is aerial bombardment on a daily basis — bombing by MiG 29 and by Antonov,” Justice and Equality Movement commander Abel Aziz el-Nur Ashr Ashr said.
Sudanese forces surrounded and attacked Darfur’s most volatile camp on Tuesday to flush out rebels they say are behind recent attacks on police, an army source and camp residents said. The move on Kalma camp, home to 90 000 people, follows two attacks in the past week on police posts in South Darfur.
Violence in Darfur has forced 25Â 000 more people from their homes and is straining the capacity of camps swollen with refugees fleeing conflict in western Sudan, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The United Nations said there are more than 200 000 Darfuri refugees in neighbouring Chad and 140 000 Chadians displaced by the Darfur conflict.
Sudan’s Justice Ministry has banned all media reporting on the case of 17 people accused of trying to overthrow the government, the latest in a string of such restrictions. Local papers on Thursday said the Prosecutor General had issued a decree ”banning all media outlets, written or broadcast, from any reporting or comment on the attempted sabotage”.
More than 50 people were killed and 20 injured in Sudan’s worst floods in living memory which have partially or completely destroyed 18 000 homes. Hamadallah Adam Ali said roads to some parts of the country had been flooded and police helicopters and government planes were flying in emergency aid.
European parliamentarians said on Wednesday that Sudan’s troubled Darfur region had become no safer since a peace treaty was signed a year ago. Insecurity in the remote Western region was preventing any development there, the delegation from the European Parliament’s development committee said.
Darfur rebels on Thursday accused Sudanese government troops of attacking their forces close to the Chadian border, saying three civilians were abducted following the raid. ”Government forces attacked us on Monday evening near Sirba,” local commander from the rebel Justice and Equality Movement Abdel Majid Duda Nur said.
Sudan is ready to attend Darfur peace talks under joint United Nations-African Union mediation to resolve a conflict that has driven 2,5-million people from their homes, its foreign minister said on Monday. The rebels have split into more than a dozen groups since a peace deal last year signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions.