Splits and failures in Darfur

The Sudanese Civil war drags on, and not surprisingly, the Khartoum government isn’t doing much to help end it.

In the face of opposition from tow of the more radical groups in Darfur, the peace plan sligned in Nigeria in May is not working, and the African Union Peacekeepers are not able to operate effectively. If the AU mission had more support, it would help but some western governments will not provide the AU with any more than pious political platitudes insrtead of the hard cash and logistic support it needs.

Meanwhile the main rebel group which did sign the peace deal is seeing its support erode. It now emerges that the split in the rebels is along ethnic lines. Apparently the black African population in Darfur who have been fighting the Muslim Khartoum government is split between two groups – the Fur and the minority Zaghawa. The Zaghawa domionate the moderate SLA which signed the peace deal, the Fur are in the more radical groups and in part of the SLA which now appears to have split off, and are opposed to the deal.

The Khartoum government have taken a strong line against allowing the AU force to be replaced by a UN peace force, claiming that a UN force would be a ‘recolonisation’ of Sudan. The longer the fighting drags on, the more Fur and Zaghawa people die of hunger in refugee camps, which suits the allegedly government backed Janjaweed, the group which has effectively been conducting genocide in Darfur.

Nothing will happen – either improved logistic support for the AU or any UN force – unless the US is willing to pay its share of the cost of an operation in Darfur. Since the US does not have the resources to intervene itself, they might do well to back a UN force in an effort to try and stabilise the region before the fighiting spills over into other countries. As for the objections from Khartoum to a UN force, well, if enforceing the rule of law and basic human rights is ‘recolonisation’ then Sudan could certainly use a bit of that.