The economic consequences of Sudan’s diplomatic isolation restricts access to aid which, combined with war, are dire – worsened by social fractures that fuel military instability
About a million desperate public sector workers have had to survive on their savings or social aid networks
Twenty-one Sudanese army soldiers have been killed in fierce fighting with southern forces in the contested oil-rich town of Abyei, army sources said on Wednesday. The army accused the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, from semi-autonomous South Sudan, of attacking its positions in the town on Tuesday.
Darfur rebels and Sudan’s army fought heavy battles in the North Kordofan province near Khartoum on Saturday, a local government official and witnesses said. The Darfur Justice and Equality Movement said it was strengthening its forces in Kordofan but not attacking government troops — to avoid causing civilian casualties.
Sudanese government bombs have hit a primary school and a busy market place in Darfur, killing at least 13 people, including seven children, two aid organisations said on Monday. The Sudanese army has repeatedly denied bombing in the area, which would be a violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution banning all offensive flying.
Darfur rebels accused the government on Tuesday of bombing areas under their control and said attacks this week showed Khartoum was not serious about seeking peace. But the army denied the accusations, which come during the visit of a Sudanese delegation to London to follow up on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s offer to host Darfur peace talks.
Girls as young as 11 have suffered rape by Sudanese government forces and armed groups across Darfur more than five years after war began there, a rights organisation said on Monday. Human Rights Watch said sexual violence is rife in Darfur, where neither Sudanese security forces nor international peacekeepers are properly protecting women and girls.
Senegal wants the international community to guarantee a peace accord between Chad and Sudan to end years of conflict between the two feuding neighbours, President Abdoulaye Wade said. The Senegalese leader will host the signing of a peace pact on Wednesday between Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno and Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir
The sun-blasted desert between this small Chadian border town and Sudan’s Darfur is scattered with stunted trees and thorny shrubs. Beneath each one, Sudanese refugees huddle under blankets or sheets tied to branches, desperately seeking shade.
Four Sudanese civilians died when a grenade went off as they tried to retrieve a body believed to be of a French soldier killed after he strayed into Sudan from Chad, the army said on Thursday. A spokesperson said a group of Sudanese nomads found the body on Wednesday near the border with Chad.
The United Nations in Sudan accused a rebel group on Monday of blocking access to a mountainous area in Darfur where 20 000 people are trapped after fighting between the government and rebels. Ameerah Haq, the UN humanitarian chief for Sudan, said an assessment mission to the Jabel Moun area was denied access by the Justice and Equality Movement.
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/ 26 February 2008
The deadly conflict in Darfur entered its sixth year on Tuesday with no solution in sight, as Khartoum continued to resist the full deployment of a peacekeeping force amid a fresh wave of bombings. The anniversary coincides with visits to the country by Washington’s special envoy for Sudan, Richard Williamson, and China’s point man for Darfur, Liu Giujin, for top-level talks.
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/ 19 February 2008
The United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday it had withdrawn a team caring for refugees from the Chad/Darfur border after aerial bombing. Seven refugees from Darfur crossed the border into Chad on Monday night, carrying with them a 55-year-old woman who had lost both her legs during an alleged bombardment.
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/ 12 February 2008
A major assault by the Sudanese army and allied militia has left two Darfur towns badly damaged by fire, sources close to a United Nations reconnaissance mission to the region said on Tuesday. The news came as the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed one of its staff members had been killed in the offensive.
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/ 11 February 2008
Chadian rebels fled south on Sunday pursued by government forces, the military said, as the United Nations refugee agency warned that recent fighting in the country had put aid agencies in danger. Although a calm returned to the capital Ndjamena a week after a bloody assault on the city which left more than 160 people dead, the rebel forces said they were heading south.
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/ 5 February 2008
Rebels from Sudan’s Darfur region said on Tuesday that their fighters were engaged in Chad, but they were fighting Sudanese army forces that were backing rebels trying to oust Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno. The Chad army earlier said it repulsed an attack by Sudanese forces and rebels on a frontier town on the Chad-Sudan border on Sunday.
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/ 4 February 2008
Thousands of civilians fled Chad’s capital Ndjamena on Monday after rebel forces pulled back from a two-day assault, but the rebels said they would attack again to try to topple President Idriss Déby Itno, whose government said it had beaten off more than 2Â 000 insurgents.
The threat of open conflict between Sudan and neighbouring Chad is rising, with each side accusing the other of seeking to destabilise their already tense common border. Sudan said on Sunday it was ready for any Chadian attack the day after Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno said his forces would pursue rebels into Sudan’s region of Darfur.
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/ 29 October 2007
Darfur rebels accused Sudanese government forces of attacking an area along the border with Chad in violation of a unilateral ceasefire the government declared at the opening of peace talks in Libya. Rebels from two factions, which did not attend the talks, said on Monday the government had attacked the Jabel Moun area along the Chad-Sudan border on Saturday.
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/ 10 October 2007
Fighting has erupted between the only Darfur rebel group to have signed a 2006 peace accord and Sudanese troops, the United Nations said on Wednesday after the rebels accused Khartoum of attacking a town the rebels control. The United Nations said that exchanges of fire took place on between the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Minni Minawi and the Sudanese army.
A Sudanese army air and ground assault killed at least 45 people in the Darfur town of Muhajiriya, where bodies littered the streets amid burned out buildings, rebels who control the area said on Tuesday. ”Until now the number of dead civilians are at least 40, with 80 missing and a large number of injured,” the Sudan Liberation Army said.
A Darfur town has been burned to the ground and its residents forced to flee, days after 10 African Union (AU) troops were killed there in an attack, a joint United Nations/African Union mission said on Sunday. The report confirmed rebel statements on Friday that the remote settlement of Haskanita had been all but destroyed.
A key Darfur rebel leader warned on Saturday his movement will not attend peace talks this month in Libya unless the United Nations and the African Union can convince a rival group to unite its splinter factions.Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, had said he would attend talks set to begin October 27 in Tripoli, Libya.
Sudanese government forces and militia groups razed a town in central Darfur where African Union soldiers were attacked, rebel leaders said on Friday, adding the troops were also threatening to raid a nearby town. Sudan’s army and Darfur rebel movements blame each other for last week’s assault on the AU base in Haskanita in which 10 African Union soldiers were killed.
The 1 000 Darfur rebels waited until sunset, the end of the Ramadan fast, to begin their assault. Some of the outgunned African peacekeepers, caught by surprise, fought back. Others fled into the scrublands, and at the end 10 of them were dead.
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/ 21 September 2007
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Thursday challenged the United Nations and its members to break their silence on two men he charged with war crimes in Darfur. Luis Moreno-Ocampo said too little attention had been paid to his arrest warrants, an issue not on the agenda of the talks.
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/ 12 September 2007
A senior Darfur rebel leader accused the Sudanese government on Wednesday of trying to grab land ahead of October peace talks, and threatened to pull out of the talks unless attacks stopped. Justice and Equality Movement leader Khalil Ibrahim said the violence in the remote west would make it impossible for him to travel to negotiations with Khartoum.
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/ 11 September 2007
Ongoing violence in Sudan’s Darfur region threatens to undermine planned peace talks between Khartoum and rebel groups, a British minister said as he flew into the war-torn area on Tuesday. British Foreign Office Minister for Africa Mark Malloch Brown made the remarks a day after rebels said government aircraft had bombed a rebel-held Darfur town.
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/ 4 September 2007
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon flew in to south Sudan’s capital, Juba, on Tuesday to try to speed implementation of the 2005 peace deal that ended Africa’s longest civil war. Aides said Ban would try to resolve sticking points in the roll-out of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.