From World News

The Scotsman World put to shame as Sudan heads for disaster

Via the crackle of a satellite phone, the punctured hopes of the people of Darfur were dealt another blow.

On the line was Hassan Khamis, military coordinator for the National Movement for Reform and Development, one of the rebel groups holding out against the Sudanese government.

Just five days earlier, on Monday last week, the government had agreed a ceasefire. It said it was ordering its troops in three areas of Darfur to step down. But on Friday, the reality was very different. 'As we are speaking, they are shooting at our base... near the border with Chad,' Khamis claimed. 'They are attacking us and the Sudanese Liberation Army [SLA],' he added, referring to Darfur’s main rebel group.

Two of his group were wounded. They in turn managed to capture an army truck. But all hopes of a fragile peace breaking out in this blighted and forgotten part of Africa were once again blown away.

It is not the first time that a ceasefire has been broken before the ink is dry. The first was declared in April. Another was declared in November, and was broken by the SLA less than two weeks later.

Meanwhile, talks between the SLA and another rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), have foundered, following an upsurge of violence in the southern part of the state.

Last week, Save the Children announced it was pulling out of the country, declaring it too dangerous. Two local members of staff had been raped when a Save the Children convoy was attacked by militiamen on the road from Kas to Nyala. Simmering with tension, it is only a matter of time before the violence in Darfur explodes.

‘Compassion fatigue’ is being blamed for the fact that what the UN describes as the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis, with some 2.3 million people reliant on overseas aid to survive, has been largely ignored since the summer.

Already, disease and famine has accounted for some 70,000 deaths in Darfur since March, according to the World Health Organisation. Yet the situation looks bleaker than ever.

'We just cannot continue to expose our staff to the unacceptable risks they face as they go about their humanitarian duties,' said Mike Aaronson, head of Save the Children UK.

Medecin Sans Frontières, which also lost a member of staff in an area into which Sudanese government troops had advanced, have decided to stay, for now.

Aid workers fear speaking out, aware that by doing so the government may crack down on relief. But one said privately: 'The situation is now more unstable than it was in the summer. We have to use UN helicopters because the roads are so insecure... looting is now accepted as normal.'

As a result, aid is not reaching the unknown thousands of refugees huddled in camps in the more desolate parts of the region.

Save the Children estimates that there are two million people in Sudan in dire need of humanitarian aid. It fears the World Food Programme will only be able to reach half of them.

Hundreds of thousands are likely to make the desperate journey to Chad, but a poor rainy season there means they are unlikely to find any respite.

This Christmas, thousands have poured into the shops in Britain to buy the re-recording of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas, inspired by the terrible famines of 1984 and 1985.

The conflict blighting Sudan today has its roots in those dark days. Mainly nomadic Arab tribes (known as the Janjaweed) came into conflict with local African farmers over what remained of the fertile land. Soon, religion and politics added to the mix.

The Arab tribes are seen as being supported by the Islamist government of Sudan, led by President Omar Hassan El-Bashir, who has been accused of arming the Janjaweed.

In turn the African tribes armed themselves and formed the SLA and the JEM, to fight for greater rights and autonomy.

The conflict has now spiralled out of control. There are four rebel groups operating in Darfur. The most recent addition, the Sudanese National Movement for the Eradication of Marginalisation (SNMEM), carried out its first military action against the Sharif oil pumping station, killing 15 last Sunday.

The biggest fear of diplomats is that Sudan will collapse completely. That concern was allayed a little with news on Friday that the Sudanese government and the main rebel group in southern Sudan, the People's Liberation Army, will sign a peace agreement in January to end more than 20 years of civil war. But the situation remains fragile.

Such a fate, they believe, could be a hundred times worse than the current tragedy in Darfur.

The further instability on the ground has been noted by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who said last Wednesday that 'the 15-nation Security Council had to take new decisions urgently to curb escalating violence in Darfur'.

Annan is expected to report on Darfur next month, to try to evaluate whether genocide has taken place. But any question of sanctions is certain to be opposed by Russia and China, Sudan’s chief trading partners.

On Thursday evening, US President George W Bush signed into law new legislation which calls upon him to freeze the assets of Sudanese officials and government-run businesses. But it remains to be seen if the US administration will still take such a hard line against Sudan, following the departure of Secretary of State Colin Powell.

For the refugees, the situation, heading into the New Year, has worsened.

As fighting intensifies in Darfur, and as the aid agencies retreat, the scene is set for a situation that should shame the world.



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