Enough blogs

Five Stories You May Have Missed This Week

Lexi Britton — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:58:18 +0000

Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.

“A Day in the DRC” examines daily life in Goma,eastern Congo. The Atlantic’s Armin Rosen, explores Goma, a city often characterized by conflict, through a different lens and visits the world’s largest lava lake, the bustling market, and the local basketball court. Rosen reflects on the juxtaposition of war and Goma’s otherwise idyllic surroundings: “So much of life in Goma rides on these syntheses of necessity and ingenuity and constant mortal danger. For all of its churn and anarchy, Goma is still aware enough of itself to commemorate them.”

In an interview with Professor Tandeka Nkiwane, Former South African President Thabo Mbkei discusses the challenges faced by the A.U. High Level Implementation Panel on Sudan and reacts to receiving the Daily Trust African of the Year Award.

“The continent [Africa] has the youngest population in the world and some 60% of Africa's unemployed are reported to be between the ages of 15 and 24.” As a result, an increasing number of Africans, Kenyans especially, are moving to Dubai to seek job opportunities unavailable to them at home. Ugandan writer Joel Kibazo discusses the social and political implications of Africa’s large scale youth unemployment.

In Darfur, a surge in fighting since the beginning of 2013 has led to the displacement of nearly 300,000 people. In “New Strife in Darfur Leaves many Seeking Refuge,” U.N. Official Valerie Amos talks to new arrivals in the Zam Zam camp about the declining humanitarian situation. “’We are like birds in a cage,’ one female resident of Zam Zam told Ms. Amos. ‘We can’t leave after sunset; there are rapes; there are challenges to women’s health,’ especially during childbirth.”

This week, Jim Yong Kim and Ban Ki-moon discussed the need for peace dividend to follow the “Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the DRC and the [Great Lakes] Region.” The United Nations and World Bank pledged to work together to ensure that the political and security aspects of implementation align with economic development.

The Hill Op-ed: Kerry's Moment at the African Summit

Enough Team — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:26:28 +0000

This op-ed originally appeared on The Hill's Congress blog.

Secretary of State John Kerry will attend the African Union Heads of State Summit this weekend. Kerry’s participation in the summit — which marks 50 years of African regional cooperation — presents an opportunity to improve leverage for substantive outcomes. In partnership with African leaders, Kerry can help ensure that this summit has an impact by pushing for credible peace processes in Africa’s two deadliest wars: Sudan and Congo.

Sudan has been ripped apart by conflict for much of the last six decades. Negotiations leading to the 2011 independence of South Sudan were largely successful. However, the two countries require mediation to ensure that they implement post-secession commitments to peace and mutual viability. International efforts to bring peace to Sudan’s embattled regions of Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile have failed. War is escalating in all three areas, and rebels are coordinating their actions under the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF).

Additionally, the two Sudans’ continued inability to agree on the final status of the disputed, oil-producing region of Abyei is destabilizing. A primary reason for the failure of attempts to end the wars in Sudan is that the peace processes for each region have been isolated from one another. No process has addressed the root causes of continuing conflict in the Sudans: the absence of credible arrangements to share power and wealth; and inclusive, democratic governance.

The African Union and Kerry can remedy these problems by pressing for the construction of a unified peace process for all of Sudan’s regions. The process should include elements of the opposition, civil society groups, women and youth. It should focus on recalibrating relations between the center and the periphery and on expanding political space so that Sudan meets the conditions for internationally certified, free and fair elections in 2015.

The current approach of pursuing separate deals for Darfur, South Kordofan, Blue Nile and the East will increase conflict, not end it. The African Union could make a contribution by articulating the continent’s commitment to facilitating a holistic peace process between the Sudans. Congo’s war has been even deadlier than Sudan’s. More than five million people have died since the mid-1990s in eastern Congo. As in Sudan, the lack of a credible peace process that addresses the drivers of violence and disinvestment in functioning democratic institutions are the main culprits.

The recent appointment of former Irish President Mary Robinson as the U.N. special envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes Region provides a new opening. African heads of state, with the cooperation of the U.S. and other countries, should highlight the need for a forum between the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda as part of the peace process to address the economic and security issues that have helped fuel conflict in eastern Congo, as well as democratization within Congo.

In particular, an African Union focus on the importance in the Great Lakes of setting up credible mechanisms to stop illegal minerals smuggling, instituting transparency and rule of law in natural resource concession deals, and prioritizing cross-border infrastructure would help unlock significantly increased international investment in a conflict-free natural resources trade in the region. These steps could spur progress in the peace process, as they would increase the size of the economic pie in the region, so that it would be far more profitable for Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to cooperate than to fight over the spoils of a dwindling, illegal trade. Economics should be used as the greatest point of leverage for peace within Congo and between Congo and its neighbors.

The issues to be dealt with in effective peace processes are complex, and will require careful mediation to hammer out agreements on economic, security, and political issues. The African Union should demand that such processes be created, and provide support for them. Kerry can help to secure international leverage to bring the parties to the table and amplify voices for peace in Sudan and Congo. His leadership demonstrates an increased U.S. investment in peace in Africa’s two deadliest wars. With U.S. envoys to both conflicts on the verge of being appointed, the U.S. can make a major contribution to ending some of the most intense war-induced agony on the face of the earth.

Prendergast is co-founder of the Enough Project at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., where Lezhnev is a senior policy analyst and Kumar is a Sudan and South Sudan policy analyst.

Photo: Secretary of State John Kerry (AP).

Groups Push for Unity of African States at A.U. 50th Anniversary Summit

David Carden — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:14:21 +0000

More than 70 Heads of State will gather this week to attend the 21st Africa Union summit which coincides with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the continental institution. The summit’s theme “Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance” will unfold with a call for Africans to “realize the dream of the founding fathers for a peaceful, prosperous, and united Africa”. Despite the backdrop of this celebratory atmosphere, discussions of the many challenges and conflicts taking place in several regions throughout the continent will also be on the agenda.

A coalition of over 120 civil society organizations from African and the Middle East issued a joint statement calling on the A.U. to “use this anniversary not just to mark but to make history by supporting a new, bolder and comprehensive approach to Sudan’s conflicts.” The statement further cites that 4.4 million people have been affected by the drastic consequences of escalating wars in Darfur, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile.

Secretary of State John Kerry will be attending the A.U. Summit and has a significant opportunity to amplify this call for action on Sudan when meeting with African leaders this Friday and Saturday. Secretary Kerry will also be engaging in an interview with BBC HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi on Sunday, May 26. Questions will be answered from a live-stream audience. To submit your questions, visit the BBC HARDtalk's site here.

Full Coalition Statement:

This week our leaders will gather to celebrate 50 years of African unity and we celebrate with them in recognising the significance and success so far of Pan Africanism. However, whilst we mark such progress, the situation in Sudan is deteriorating at an alarming rate.

Across the country, 4.4 million people have been affected by the drastic consequences of escalating wars in Darfur, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile. Millions are dependent on food aid or living in supposedly ‘temporary’ camps. In recent weeks, the conflict has spread nearer the capital into North Kordofan in the context of an increasing alliance between rebel movements.

Furthermore, the recent assassination of the Paramount Chief Kuol Deng, a prominent leader of the Dinka Ngok communities, in the disputed territory of Abyei has reminded us that the fragile peace between Sudan and South Sudan could be shattered so very easily.

We need to tackle the fundamental drivers of the country’s multiple conflicts and acknowledge that the many groups taking up arms against the Government share common grievances that demand a common approach. As a broad coalition of over 120 civil society organisations from across Africa and the Middle East, we call on the AU to use this anniversary not just to mark but to make history by supporting a new, bolder and comprehensive approach to Sudan’s conflicts.

Photo: Heads of the African States pose in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during the African Union Conference in January 2013. (AP)

Stars and Stripes Op-ed: More U.S. can do to reform Congolese military

Enough Team — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:41:06 +0000

Editor's Note: This op-ed, written by Retired Army Col. Rick Orth originally appeared on Stars and Stripes. Col. Rick Orth is a senior fellow with the Enough Project. He served as the U.S. defense attache to Rwanda (1996-1998), Uganda (2001-2005), and Ethiopia and Djibouti (2005-2006), as well as the military adviser to the assistant secretary of state for African affairs (2006-2008).

The Congolese military has again been accused of significant human-rights abuses, including mass rape. Recently, the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office released a report concerning abuses by the Congolese Army (FARDC) as it retreated from advancing M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo between Nov. 15 and Dec. 2.

The report focused on mass rapes in and around the town of Minova. Among the Congolese soldiers who perpetrated these gross human-rights abuses were members of the U.S.-trained 391st Commando Battalion. The Congolese military has suspended the commander and deputy commander of this battalion along with 12 other officers as it continues its investigation.

Officers and soldiers must be brought to justice for their crimes. In addition, because they are in the military, they must also be punished for dereliction of duty and failure to maintain discipline.

Military forces must be held to higher standards than their civilian counterparts, given that the profession of arms uses controlled violence and deadly force to protect the country and its citizens. Unfortunately, in the Congolese case, the military tends to use violence and force to abuse rather than protect the population.

These events again illuminate the historically dysfunctional Congolese military institution. Will justice be served in this case? A focus on building a functioning military justice system would be a logical answer, as it would hold officers and soldiers accountable for their actions as well as serve as a deterrent for misconduct and abuses. However, realistically speaking, Congo’s army lacks most of the elements that would comprise a professional military, such as logistics, a transparent payroll system and military justice, to name just a few.

The U.S. departments of State and Defense understood the risks associated with training the 391st Commando Battalion, especially given the institutional dysfunction of the Congolese army. However, they needed a battalion capable of engaging some of the so-called “Negative Forces” — the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, and various Congolese rebel groups that now include the M23 — operating in and terrorizing eastern Congo. U.S. military training for foreign militaries includes human-rights and law-of-land warfare modules. Given the heightened awareness to gender-based violence in eastern Congo, U.S. military training stressed the importance of human rights and expanded these modules.

However, units are only as good as their commanders. Additionally, if a highly trained unit operates in a dysfunctional system with low wages, no logistics and non-existent military justice, it likely will revert to its old ways.

Congolese security forces dating back to the Belgian Force Publique have a history of brutality toward the civilian population that only became worse under former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. The current military — an amalgamation of the former Zairian forces and various rebel factions that have been integrated into the army by the government and trained by myriad foreign countries including the U.S. — requires a major institutional overhaul, and it will take years to instill a professional military ethos that has broken with its brutal, corrupt and predatory past.

What to do and how to tackle this seemingly daunting task? First, the international community, including the U.S. government, must hold President Joseph Kabila and the senior Congolese leadership accountable and stop making excuses for their failure to uphold agreements, which has been a major cause for flare-ups in the conflict.

Second, the U.S. and European Union should deploy senior-level envoys to support former Irish President Mary Robinson as the new U.N. special envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Her role will be critical in better coordinating and synchronizing international efforts to ensure real implementation of Congolese reforms, including improving the Congolese army as a professional institution with emphasis on logistics, a military finance system and military justice.

Third, given that the U.S. currently provides a series of officer training courses in an effort to professionalize the Congolese army, the U.S. should lead efforts to build a credible and effective Congolese military justice system. This effort should include helping review and revise as needed the current Congolese Code of Military Justice, training the military lawyers in the code and how to implement it, ensuring the current officer training curriculum covers the code and its implementation, and a FARDC-wide education campaign on the importance of military justice to include the consequences for failure to uphold the code.

The horrific spree of sexual violence in Minova is a stain on our consciences. But if there is a silver lining to that incident, let it be an opening window to enact the real justice reforms needed to ensure that such a case never happens again.

Photo: Congolese government soldiers (FARDC) patrol the streets of Minova. (AP)

How Small Steps Lead to Giant Leaps in Friendship and Understanding

Guest Contributor — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:06:48 +0000

Editor's Note: Madison Brenchak is a student at Seymour Middle School in Seymour, CT. She is a member of Seymour’s Small Steps club, a participant and supporter of the Darfur Dream Team Sister Schools Program. Learn more about the Darfur Dream Team and the Pazocalo social network that connects students at Seymour and 25 other U.S. schools with their Darfuri peers.

Right now, in 2013, it has been ten years since the tragedy occurring in Darfur started. In 2003, the Sudanese government began supporting militia groups called the Janjaweed (“Devil on Horseback” in Arabic) to terrorize villages in Darfur because of their ethnicity and with goals of acquiring land and resources. These actions have been widely recognized as genocide.

As a result, millions of Darfuris lives were in jeopardy and they were forced from their homes. Hundreds of thousands of Darfuris walk miles and miles to seek asylum in Chad, Sudan’s neighboring country to the west. Even after ten years of brutality and displacement, this tragic conflict continues today.

As members of Small Steps, a student club at Seymour Middle School, we aim to make a difference in the lives of these displaced Darfuris. I joined Small Steps with hopes of improving the lives of Darfuri students in refugee camps. We have been brainstorming many different ideas and plans to help make a difference for education in the refugee camps through the Darfur Dream Team Sister Schools Program.

For example, Small Steps is holding fundraisers and collecting donations in our community to support our sister school, a primary school in Goz Amer refugee camp called Choula A. We believe we can learn from our Darfuri friends and that they can benefit from our help here at Small Steps. This semester we raised more than $1200 for Choula A during our penny jar wars fundraiser.

We are also trying to get more and more people to become aware of what exactly is going on in Sudan and the refugee camps in Chad. The refugees have few possessions and are thankful for the support we provide. So acting and donating just a little, can be crucial to improving their lives.

As a group, Small Steps has also been able to communicate and build friendships with some Darfuri refugee students and teachers in Chad via DDT’s social network, Pazocalo. We ask how they are doing and about school subjects and other topics as well. This way we are interacting with and learning from each other. This is a great opportunity because, although we are separated by a whole ocean and half a continent, the social network gives us a chance to interact with each other. The refugee camps are so remote and our daily lives are so different, but it’s amazing to share back-and-forth about our experiences as students despite the difficulties.

If we get more people to spread awareness and get involved, we can really make a difference in the lives of Darfuris. Just think about how much of an impact we can all make together. The conflict in Darfur persists, even today. But as more schools and students get to know these survivors and take action, we can begin with small steps and then be able to take giant leaps toward improving each other’s lives. For example, our donations are providing much-needed supplies, training, and more for schools and education in the refugee camps. Additionally, our Small Steps club here at Seymour Middle School can motivate other students to learn about Darfur, get involved, and hear directly from Darfuris about their hopes and dreams.

Photo 1: The Small Steps club at Seymour Middle School organized a school-wide "penny war" and raised $1,200 for their Darfuri sister school- Choula A in Goz Amer refugee camp. (Brian Cleveland/Seymour Middle School)

Photo 2: Student and faculty members of Seymour Middle School's Small Steps club. (Brian Cleveland/Seymour Middle School)

Field Update: Goma's Destiny

Timo Mueller and Fidel Bafilemba — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:52:24 +0000

On Monday morning, the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army, or FARDC, clashed in the village of Mutaho, approximately six miles northwest of the provincial capital of Goma. The fighting comes after six months of relative calm between the warring parties following the 12-day occupation of Goma by M23 in November 2012.

The fighting lasted about two hours with small skirmishes continuing thereafter. The United Nations peacekeeping mission MONUSCO said “initial skirmishes escalated to the use of heavy caliber automatic weapons, mortars and rocket launchers. It is reported that FARDC used attack helicopters, in one of their operations,” MONUSCO said. FARDC Colonel Hamuli proclaimed that “[w]e're sending reinforcements. We must protect the town of Goma at all costs". FARDC commander Lt. Col. Mamadou Ndala later specified that 600 commandos were being deployed to protect Goma. The Enough Project can report the redeployment of three Congolese army tanks.

MONUSCO estimates that the fighting displaced close to 1,000 civilians. The Enough Project witnessed a large gathering of about 200 civilians camping outside a MONUSCO military base.

Naming and shaming

Fortunately, according to a MONUSCO source, no civilian casualties were accounted for on Monday. The government later said that M23 lost 15 men with another 21 men injured; FARDC lost four soldiers with another six injured. On Monday afternoon, Vice-Governor of North Kivu Feller Lutahichirwa assured the residents of Goma that the “situation is under control.”

Army spokesperson Colonel Olivier Hamuli claimed that the rebels attacked the army’s position in order to secure the strategic town of Mugunga, just west of Goma. He told The Enough Project that M23 has been threating to re-take Goma since last week to prevent the deployment of the UN Intervention Brigade. The Spokesperson of the Government, Lambert Mende, later echoed his remarks, adding that “foreign elements” support M23.

North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku believes that M23 initiated the offense in order to send a direct message to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, casting doubt over a new UN-initiated peace initiative known as the 11+4 framework. Ban Ki-moon is slated to visit Goma on Thursday together with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and U.N. envoy to the Great Lakes Region Mary Robinson. M23 President Bertrand Bisimwa tweeted on Tuesday that “Ban Ki-moon should advise the Congolese government to stop war for a peace process. Talks are still the only way for peace in our country.”

The rebel movement shrugged off these assertions and in turn blamed the army. In an official statement, the group said the army attacked M23 after the latter had repelled an attack by another rebel movement known as FDLR. On May 2nd, M23 President Bertrand Bisimwa claimed that the army is working in conjunction with FDLR, eager to advance on the rebel group. It comes to no surprise then that M23 proclaimed it acted yesterday in “self-defense.” Following the fighting, M23’s military spokesman Vianney Kazarama boasted that M23 had secured key positions around Goma but clarified that his group does not intend to take Goma.

Will M23 re-occupy Goma?

Today’s fighting mirrors the lead-up to the taking of Goma in November 2012 when M23 occupied the eastern Congo’s economic powerhouse - home to over 200 U.N. and international aid agencies – supposedly as an act of self-defense. But will Goma fall again? It’s hard to tell.

M23 is suffering from increased defections and efforts to compensate its loss through recruitment campaigns appear to be falling short. Despite rumors that M23 received new military hardware and even support from Rwanda, it is unlikely that the rebels could hold Goma for an extended period of time. While M23 says the group has as many as 4,500 men, independent reports put the numbers of M23 combatants between 1,200 - 1,500. M23 may want to continue various offensives in order to have a bargaining chip in the face of a new foe.

The fighting at the outskirts of Goma comes on the heels of the deployment of a 3,000-man force that the UN Security Council mandated to “neutralize” and “disarm” armed groups in eastern Congo. Over the last two months, M23 has lashed out against the brigade, publicly threating troop contributing countries and vowing to “fight back” if attacked by the brigade. M23 has also reportedly tried twice to convince people living in its controlled territory to demonstrate against the deployment of the FIB but the population refused. With the first contingent of the force arriving in Goma last week, the pressure on M23 is gradually increasing. Ban Ki-moon said today that "[c]onsidering what has happened I think we must expedite the deployment so they will be fully responsible as soon as possible."

However, re-occupying Goma would seriously derail M23’s current public relations strategy that rests on two pillars: Insisting on holding further peace talks, it decries the U.N. intervention brigade to be a declaration of war towards ordinary Congolese. Taking Goma would tarnish M23’s self-made image as a force for good.

Similarly, re-occupying Goma would kill the group’s slim chances of striking a peace deal with the government. While the dialogue in Kampala remains at an impasse, Mary Robinson and the African Union expressed their continued support for the talks. While taking Goma in November 2012 might have been effective in pressuring the government into consenting to a dialogue, a similar move this time around is likely to cause a serious diplomatic backlash in the international arena.

A grim outlook

The fighting continued today with both parties exchanging rounds of artillery fire that Enough Project’s field researchers could hear from Goma. Army spokesperson Hamuli said that "[t]he M23 tried to overrun our positions and we're in the process of pushing them back". M23 President Bertrand Bisimwa tweeted that “FARDC and FDLR resume[d] their attacks against our positions this morning. Tanks, MB [a tank type] are shelling our positions.” Later, he added that "the UN has declared war [on M23]." M23 spokesman Amani Kabasha retorted as well, averring that "[i]t seems the government wants to fight." "There is no political will for bringing peace through a negotiated settlement".

The destiny of Goma and the region at large is suspended in mid-air. M23 tweeted at 6pm local time that the “DRC government army is still shelling bombs on M23 positions.” An hour earlier, AP Journalist Melanie Gouby tweeted that she saw “[s]poradic fighting in Kibati,” 15 km north of Goma. And the latest statement by army spokesman Colonel Hamuli, is rather worrying: "We're keeping a fierce response in store for them [M23]."

Going forward, it is critical for the peace process led by the UN and AU to move ahead quickly to address the drivers of the fighting, so that concrete negotiations and reforms take the place of a military solution. UN Envoy Robinson should both begin regional negotiations between Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda on critical economic and security issues, and help facilitate a process of democratic reform within Congo. Last week, Enough released a report outlining steps that Ms. Robinson should take on the peace process and also urged the UN to come up with a more comprehensive strategy to increase defections among armed groups.

Photo: Displaced civilians in eastern Congo sit outside a MONUSCO military base. (Enough Project)

5 Stories You May Have Missed This Week

Mollie Zapata — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:25:21 +0000

Enough Project Fellow Hawa Salih is featured in this story “Escape to Obscurity,” about life as a Darfuri refugee who has fled to America.

She was a natural leader, catapulted to where she was by the horrors she had witnessed. She knew she could be arrested for talking to me. She knew she could be arrested just for standing outside our house. But she didn’t care. It almost seemed she wanted to be arrested—to become a victim for her cause.

I thought to myself: What will happen to this woman? Will she ever leave Darfur? Little did we both know on that afternoon, one day Hawa would be living in a shelter in rural New Jersey. She would be scraping money to get by, hoping for a chance to win a scholarship to an American school. She would be lost in a world she did not know how to lead. After surviving a war and thriving in hell, Hawa would be ill-suited for a peaceful life.

According to the International Monetary Fund’s latest report, near-term economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to grow. The IMF projects economic growth of 5 ½ percent in 2013-2014, up ½ percent from 2012.

“Sub-Saharan Africa is now the second fastest–growing region in the world, trailing only emerging Asia,” the report states. However, “Domestic risks include adverse climate developments and internal conflict. These events, though potentially severe in their impact domestically and perhaps on close neighbors, usually do not have significant effects on the region as a whole.”

This video, “2013 Africa Progress Report: Equity in Extractives,” summarizes the “2013 African Progress Report,” focusing on how Africa’s mineral wealth can improve livelihoods. The report includes a great infographic “Mapping Africa’s Mineral Wealth: Selected Countries and Commodities,” which features DR Congo.

This week, humanitarian workers were evacuated from Pibor town in Jonglei State, South Sudan via U.N. helicopter due to rebel infighting. According the Refugees International blog, “Many of these aid workers wanted to stay, knowing that once they left there would be no one to witness the ongoing atrocities or prevent the government soldiers from looting humanitarian supplies. Now, however, Pibor has become a virtual ghost town, with most of the civilian population fleeing into the bush.”

As Sudan’s rainy season approaches, UNHCR is prepositioning aid for tens of thousands of Darfuri refugees in eastern Chad that have fled Darfur in the last few months due to recent clashes over gold mines in North Darfur.

To date, UNHCR has registered 28,278 Sudanese refugees in the Tissi area. They are settled across 16 sites within a 100 km radius. Most are herders moving frequently in search of pasture land and water for their livestock and this makes it extremely challenging to register and assist them.

5 Stories You May Have Missed This Week

Mollie Zapata — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:04:06 +0000

This map from Foreign Policy illustrates the U.S. military’s presence in Africa. Clicking on each point on the map yields information on what U.S. troops, equipment, or personnel are at each location and what they’re doing in that country.

The Atlantic published an article, “The Price of Inviting Nafie Ali Nafie to Washington,” about the controversy surrounding the former advisor to Omar al-Bashir and head of Sudan’s intelligence service’s impending visit to the U.S. Nafie was officially invited to visit Washington, D.C. this year as a part of a high-level Sudanese delegation.

“The Obama administration needs to ask itself whether the still-unforeseeable political and diplomatic payoff of Nafie's visit is worth the moral statement that such a visit conveys,” says article author Armin Rosen.

In a video message recorded for the African Progress Panel, Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan makes statements about using the continent’s mineral wealth wisely and demanding more transparency in the minerals sector.

“Imagine an African continent, where leaders use mineral wealth wisely to fund better health, education, energy, and infrastructure too. Africa, our continent has oil, gas, platinum, diamonds, cobalt, copper, and more. If we use these resources wisely, they will improve the lives of millions of Africans. If we don’t, they can fuel corruption, conflict, and social instability. Transparency and accountability are key. The US and Europe are demanding new transparency from companies who work in Africa. We must also take responsibility. Our governments may have become more open. Big businesses may have improved their ways of working.

The U.N. Population Fund, or UNFPA, launched an updated Too Young to Wed website, that includes sections on community expectations for child brides, maternal and mental health, domestic violence and girls’ education, as well as a series of photo galleries. The creative and beautifully formatted site was nominated for a Webby award and also features ways you can take action to end child marriage.

BBC News’ “Africa in Pictures: 3-9 May” features photos from both Sudan and South Sudan. A man dances at a ceremony celebrating the resumption of oil production in Palouge, South Sudan, and a photo from a wrestling match in Khartoum depicts one of the country’s most popular sports.

The Dark Side of Darfur's Gold Rush

Akshaya Kumar — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:18:41 +0000

Darfur is suffering its worst humanitarian crisis in years. Since the beginning of 2013, over 200,000 people have been displaced by what the government of Sudan dismisses as “inter-communal” violence. Ten years after the first reports of genocide trickled out of Darfur, an eerie echo of the past is sweeping across the region. The government of Sudan would like the world to believe that Darfur is plagued by intractable inter-tribal hatreds that inevitably lead to violent destabilizing conflict.

But in a new report, “Darfur's Gold Rush: State-Sponsored Atrocities 10 Years After the Genocide,” Enough Project Senior Advisor Omer Ismail and I challenge that descriptive framework. Our research shows that government-armed Abbala militias’ recent power play to displace the Beni Hussein people and thereby gain control North Darfur’s gold mines is not the product of inter-tribal rivalries. Instead, the Abbala offensive must be understood as a continuation of Khartoum’s campaign of state-sponsored atrocity and plunder in the region.

For over a decade, the Sudanese central government has fragmented Darfuri society by systematically sponsoring militias and taking sides in violent confrontations. This year alone, we’ve seen government forces exacerbate clashes between Darfuri groups by backing the Abbala versus the Beni Hussein; the Beni Halba versus the Gimr; and the Taaysha versus the Salamat.

This new report focuses on the clashes between the Abbala and the Beni Hussein over Jebel ‘Amer’s gold mine, highlighting the government’s heightened economic interest in the region, and underscoring its involvement in the violence. Since the discovery of gold in North Darfur in 2010, the area has experienced a gold rush, with the population of Jebel ‘Amer jumping from 1,000 to 70,000 in just two years. This boomtown now produces a third of Sudan’s gold and hosts at least 3,000 artesinal mining sites. While we do not have documented evidence that the government of Sudan ordered the Abbala offensive, it’s clear that the historically state-aligned tribe, with ties to the janjaweed, was not acting without at least tacit government consent. During the height of the violence, Abbala leaders spoke publicly on Sudanese radio, bragging about their position within the state security forces. On many instances, militiamen used state-supplied vehicles and weapons to conduct attacks, frequently while wearing state security uniforms.

Even the Abbala communities have come to recognize the way that the government of Sudan used them for economic gain. An Abbala leader worried, “we went to war and died while other people filled their pockets with the spoils.” Ahmed Abdullah Ishaq, another Abbala chief, told Radio Dabanga that tribal hostilities in North Darfur are the result of a plan orchestrated by the ruling National Congress Party.

“I am calling upon my relatives from both sides: bloodshed and deaths are needless,” said Ishaq. “When you die, other people take advantage of your deaths... We have no enemy but the government. If the Beni Hussein annihilate the [Abbala] Rizeigat or vice-versa, they are both losers and the beneficiary is the government.”

We make six recommendations to address this dark side of Darfur's gold rush:

The United States and other partners should support forces for democratic transformation within Sudan as they seek to secure a comprehensive peace in Darfur.
The United States and other partners should pressure the Government of Sudan to grant humanitarian agencies unfettered access to all areas of Darfur.
Both the international community and the government of Sudan should support the implementation of pledges made at the reconciliation conference between the Beni Hussein and Abbala tribes.
The United States and other partners should exert pressure to ensure that those responsible for human rights abuses during this latest wave of atrocities are held accountable.
The international donor community, including European allies and Qatar, should work to promote Darfur’s economic growth through sustainable and self-sufficient development.
Jewelers, gold refiners, and gold exchanges should list Sudan as a “conflict affected” originating point under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s due diligence guidelines for supply chains, triggering the Gold Supplement due diligence procedures

View or download the photos and DigitalGlobe satellite imagery from the Enough Project’s Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/enoughproject/sets/72157633441382071/

New Satellite Imagery Confirms Broken Agreements Along the Sudan/South Sudan Border

Mollie Zapata — Tue, 07 May 2013 19:49:17 +0000

A new report from the Satellite Sentinel Project, or SSP, confirms that Sudan and South Sudan have violated recent peace agreements by positioning troops in what is supposed to be a 12-mile (20-kilometer) demilitarized buffer zone along their contested border. Neither the joint border-verification mechanism established by both countries, nor the United Nations peacekeeping mission tasked with monitoring the demilitarized buffer zone has detected these violations.

In the report, “Broken Agreement: Violations in the Demilitarized Border Zone by Sudan and South Sudan,” DigitalGlobe satellite imagery from Heglig and Kiir Adem proves that both governments violated their obligations under the March 2013 treaty in which they agreed to implement September 2012 peace agreements.

The imagery shows that both governments have taken some steps towards complying with the demilitarization agreement, including removing six tanks each from the demilitarized zone (in Heglig for Sudan, and Teshwin for South Sudan); however, the imagery also shows instances of violations on both sides. As of April 14, 2013, Sudan Armed Forces, or SAF, positioned weaponized pickup trucks in one location and maintained two defensive installations within the buffer zone near the oil-producing area of Heglig, and South Sudan maintained its own defensive position at the bridge in Kiir Adem, and appears to have established a new defensive position nearby.

Imagery in the report includes a map of the demilitarized zone, as well as before- and after- imagery of two Sudan Armed Forces garrisons, an artillery battery, and infantry position in Heglig, South Kordofan, Sudan (though claimed by South Sudan under the name Panthou), and Sudan People’s Liberation Army, or SPLA, defensive positions in Teshwin, and Kiir Adem, both located in Unity State, South Sudan.

DigitalGlobe satellite imagery confirmsa strong case that other violations have gone undetected and unverified due to the U.N. mission’s current lack of resources and force-protection capacity. SSP will continue to monitor both Sudan and South Sudan’s armed forces and their compliance with obligations to create a demilitarized buffer zone.

Read the report.

View or download the high-resolution DigitalGlobe satellite imagery on Flickr.