Current Situation

This page is updated monthly and contains key news stories about the situation in Darfur. For a longer overview, see our "Sudan Timeline; from 1950 to 2010".

 January 17th-11th Feburary, 2011/ Source: Bloomberg

The recent State of the Union address by Barack Obama highlighted the further need for support in Darfur. The US is pushing for more aggressive peace keeping work as prolonged frustration in denying peacekeepers access to villages in need while the Darfur conflicts continue. "We expect UNAMID, as one of the UN's largest and most costly operations, with one of the most robust mandates passed by the Security Council, to be very active and, when necessary, aggressive... to protect civilians," US ambassador Susan Rice told reporters. As this announcement came to light, fresh threats from the Sudanese army to ‘burn to the ground’ makeshift camps for people left homeless by the Darfur conflict. However rights groups say the United Nations is painting an over-optimistic picture of events. "The peace process has petered out," said Jehanne Henry, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch, speaking from Sudan. "The situation has sharply deteriorated in recent weeks despite some suggestions otherwise by UN officials.

Darfur wants the US to lift sanctions after the Sudanese referendum. Foreign Minister Ali Karti told "We want more investment in our country. We want to strengthen our trade, and enhance cooperation on all aspects," With some progress made on behalf of the  US, there will be no further progress without the co-operation of Khartoum. Further obstructions to peace talks through clashes between the government and rebels. Darfur peace is speckled with violence. African Union Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said the goal is to have a Darfur agreement ready to sign by July, when Southern Sudan’s independence is due to become official.

Amnesty International has urged the Sudanese authorities to release or charge eight Darfuri men and women who are reported to have been arrested and held incommunicado since last weekend, and who are believed to be at risk of torture.

According to reports by local activists and NGOs, a number of activists, some of whom have been monitoring the human rights situation in Darfur, are believed to have been arrested and detained by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in Khartoum between 30 October and 1 November.

The authorities have not yet acknowledged the arrests and the families of those taken have not had any news of their whereabouts or been given reasons for their arrests.

For more....

Tues, Nov 2, 2010/ Source: Reuters

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan shut the Khartoum office of Radio Dabanga, whose reports on Darfur have angered it, and arrested 13 staff from the radio station and a rights group that shares its offices, the group's chairman said Tuesday.

Abdelmageed Salih, head of Human Rights and Advocacy Network for Democracy (HAND), told Reuters nine journalists and four HAND activists were detained during the weekend raids.

For more...

Wed, Nov 3, 2010/ Source: AFP

WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday condemned the reported arrests of Darfur activists over the past days by Sudanese security agents and said it would raise the issue with Khartoum. 

"The United States is deeply concerned by the reported arrests of several human rights activists and the closure of the Darfuri radio station's offices in Khartoum," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.

"Radio Dabanga is a very important source of information, real time information in Darfur," Crowley said.
 

For more... 

Sat, Oct 16, 2010/ Source: Washington Post

UNITED NATIONS - China has mounted a strenuous diplomatic campaign to block the publication of a U.N. report that claims that Chinese ammunition has been shipped into Darfur in the past year, in clear violation of U.N. sanctions, according to several U.N. diplomatic sources.

The report does not claim that Chinese arms dealers knew that their ammunition was being sent to the western region of Sudan. But the findings provide some of the strongest evidence to date that Khartoum has routinely channeled imported arms and ammunition from China into Darfur, where the Sudanese government is engaged in a military campaign against rebels.

Sudan has been under a comprehensive U.N. arms embargo for six years....

....China responded angrily to the revelations, insisting it would block the public release of the report unless the findings were rewritten, according to diplomats, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the dispute.

For more....

Mon, Oct 18, 2010/ Source: Sudan Tribune

KHARTOUM — Limited access to some parts of Jebel Marra hampers the humanitarian efforts to reach the needy in the mountainous area in Darfur.

Sudanese army intensified attacks on eastern Jebel Marra locations which are under the control of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement Army led by Abdel Wahid Al-Nur.

The air and ground attacks displaced thousands of civilians from their villages. But the peacekeeping force and the aid groups are denied by the Sudanese army from entering the area which is declared military operations zone.

"The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Mr. Georg Charpentier, is concerned by limitations on humanitarian access in view of intensified fighting in parts of Eastern Jebel Marra in Darfur," said a statement released this week. Read more... 

Tues Sept 21, 2010/ Source: AFP

KHARTOUM — Critical medical and food supplies for children have been delivered to a troublespot in Darfur for the first time in six months, the United Nations and Sudan's government said on Monday. Teams from the UN Children's Fund, or UNICEF, and World Health Organization provided emergency support, pediatric drugs and therapeutic food to health clinics in the Jebel Marra uplands, they said in a statement. "Conducted jointly by UNICEF, WHO and government partners, the missions brought deliveries of essential medicines and nutritional supplies," it said.

Heavy fighting erupted in March between the army and rebel forces earlier this year in Jebel Marra, a mountain and fertile valley region in Darfur that was a bastion of the rebellion that broke out in 2003. The teams reached areas that been "inaccessible for six months," added the statement which came after a meeting in Khartoum between UN and Sudanese government officials on Sunday. Insecurity had made access difficult, and aid workers said the health and condition of young children in the region had been a growing concern.

Polio vaccinations were also brought in as part of the delivery, which took place last week.

But due to poor roads, some supplies had to be shifted from trucks onto donkeys for the final stretch into remote areas. More...

Sun Sept 5, 2010/ Source: Reuters

KHARTOUM - Gunmen shot dead six people and injured 33 in clashes at a refugee camp in Sudan's Darfur region on Saturday, peacekeepers said. More...

Sun August 29, 2010/ Source: Daily Nation, via AllAfrica

Nairobi — Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on the Kenyan government to "clarify its position" on the presence of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir in Nairobi on Friday during the promulgation of its new constitution. More...

Mon August 16, 2010/ Source: Reuters; By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM - Sudan has expelled five U.N. and ICRC workers from West Darfur state, a U.N. official said, in the latest confrontation with international organisations in a region with the world's largest aid operation. More...

Fri August 6th, 2010/ Source: Reuters

Sudan has denied aid agencies access to Darfur's Kalma camp after five people were killed there and thousands fled when divisions over peace talks turned violent, humanitarian officials said on Friday. Kalma is home to 100,000 Darfuris and has traditionally been a stronghold of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, which is not taking part in the Doha talks trying to end Darfur's 7-year war. U.N.-African Union peacekeepers (UNAMID) have been in a stand-off with South Darfur's government and Khartoum since five men and a woman sought refuge in their Kalma police base during the violence late last month. Thousands of people also fled their homes to seek refuge near the UNAMID base. More… 

  • Darfur Suffers While the world Looks away 

Tues Aug 3, 2010/ Source: Sudan Tribune, by Dr. Anne Bartlett 

The situation in Darfur has reached crisis pitch. In the camps of the region people face food shortages, malnutrition, disease, violence and abuse. Undeterred by threats from local security people, a colleague of mine who was recently refused entry through the main entrance of Kalma, entered the camp through an alternative route. Walking through the camp from the southern end, she found babies with distended bellies, chronic malnutrition across much of the population, people with ringworm resulting in fungal infection and the loss of their hair, and the presence of life-threatening diseases such as dysentery. Read more...

  • Darfur rebels say Khartoum raids camp, two killed

    Wed July 28, 2010/ Source: Reuters

    KHARTOUM - Darfur rebels accused Sudan's army of killing at least two civilians during a raid on a refugee camp on Wednesday, the latest violence to hit the camps during a suspension of a faltering peace process for Ramadan. More...

    Mon July 19, 2010/ Source: Reuters

    N'DJAMENA - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir arrived in Chad on Wednesday, his first visit to a full member state of the International Criminal Court, which is demanding his arrest for genocide. More...

    Mon July 12, 2010/ Source: Reuters

    The International Criminal Court issued a second arrest warrant Monday for Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for the crime of genocide. Bashir, who faces an ICC arrest warrant from March 2009 for war crimes and crimes against humanity, has dismissed the court's claims that he is responsible for crimes in the Darfur region leading to the death of as many as 300,000 people and a campaign of "rape, hunger and fear" against a further 2.5 million in refugee camps. More...  

GENEVA - Rebels in Sudan's Darfur region and the United Nations will sign a deal this week to protect children, an independent mediation group said on Monday, in a move that appears aimed at stopping the use of child soldiers. The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue said Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the United Nations children's agency UNICEF would sign the agreement in Geneva on Wednesday. U.N. officials have cited evidence that the JEM and other rebels and and pro-government groups recruited child soldiers in the conflict that flared in 2003 when mostly non-Arab insurgents revolted against the Khartoum government, seeking more autonomy. "This is a very important and positive step. It is the result of more than a year's worth of dialogue between the U.N. agencies and JEM, sponsored by the HD Centre," the centre's humanitarian adviser, Dennis McNamara, said in a statement. The statement made no reference to recruitment of child soldiers but officials who asked not to be identified said one of the points of the deal was to stop this scourge in Darfur. More...  

KHARTOUM, Nearly 600 people died in rebel and tribal fighting in Sudan's Darfur region in May, the bloodiest month that the territory has seen in more than two years, U.N. officials said on Monday. Violence in the seven-year-old conflict has spiked since one of the main rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), announced in early May it was freezing its participation in peace talks. More...

Sat Jun 5, 2010/ Source: Reuters

KHARTOUM, Sudan's president said on Saturday the current round of Darfur peace talks would be the final negotiations with any armed group. Qatar-hosted peace talks are due to open on Sunday but the leaders of the two original Darfur guerrilla groups are both refusing to join. Smaller factions who have few forces on the ground are participating. More...

May 12, 2010/ Source: Reuters 

KHARTOUM, Peacekeepers warned of a build-up of Sudanese army and rebel troops near a strategic town in Darfur, where the security situation has deteriorated after peace talks between the government and rebels stalled. Separately, long running tribal clashes in the remote western region have killed 107 people since March, the joint U.N./African Union UNAMID peacekeeping mission said."The security situation in North Darfur is tense following reports of an increase in the presence of government troops and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) forces in the Shangil Tobay region,"

March 31, 2010/ Source: Reuters

KHARTOUM, South Sudan's leading party said on Wednesday it was withdrawing its candidate for the presidency in April elections, paving the way for a likely victory for incumbent President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) vice-chairman Riek Machar cited continued conflict in Darfur and electoral irregularities, adding the party would also boycott all levels of elections in Darfur.

"We decided that Yasir (Arman) should end his campaign for the presidency of the Republic," he told reporters. More...

March 24, 2010 / Source: Reuters

London - There's a deafening silence over the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's Darfur region. Few on the ground are talking and the powers that be are pushing out a single line - the war between Darfur rebels and the government is over. This statement does not tell the whole story, experts say. Widespread fighting may have eased, but the humanitarian crisis continues and insecurity poses serious problems for aid workers and peacekeepers. Fighting is still uprooting thousands of civilians, and another 2.6 million are living in worsening conditions in displacement camps. More...

March 3, 2010/ Source: Al Jazeera

The United States has expressed concern over reports that the Sudanese army launched offensives against rebels in Darfur after signing a peace deal with the main rebel group there last week.PJ Crowley, a spokesman for the US state department, said on Tuesday that Washington was "extremely concerned" over reports of fighting that "have reportedly caused significant civilian casualties, displacement, and the evacuation of humanitarian organisations". He urged Sudan's government and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) Abdel Wahid faction "to refrain from further violence and to allow the Joint African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur access to Jebel Marra to assess the humanitarian situation and restore stability".Abdel Wahid Mohamed al-Nur is the leader of an SLA faction which has a stronghold in the area. More...

March 1, 2010/ Source: Reuters 

KHARTOUM, Hundreds of civilians are feared to have died in a surge of fighting between the Sudanese army and rebels in the turbulent Darfur region, a U.N. source told Reuters on Monday.

A Sudan army spokesman denied any fighting was taking place in Darfur's mountainous Jabel Marra region and accused insurgents of harassing and attacking locals.

Reports of clashes throughout last week have marred Khartoum's announcement of a new peace push in the region and come just over a month ahead of national elections.

"We think that we have a mounting number of casualties ... The lower estimate is around 140. The higher estimate is closer to 400," said a U.N. source, adding the figures referred to civilian deaths.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said as many as 40,000 civilians had fled the fighting between the government and Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebels, most recently around the market town of Deribat.

"For us the important thing now is to get access to the area," said the source, who said aid workers and U.N. agencies had been blocked from entering Jabel Marra by the ongoing fighting and the threat of bandit attacks on their staff.

SLA field commander Suleiman Marajan told Reuters government bombing raids had killed at least 170 civilians around Deribat over the past 10 days and more had died in other areas.

The army spokesman told Reuters: "There are no clashes between the Sudanese army and the forces of Abdel Wahed's movement." Abdel Wahed Mohamed al-Nur is the leader of an SLA faction which has a stronghold in the area.

Darfur's conflict surged in 2003 when the SLA and other rebels took up arms against Sudan's government, accusing it of leaving the mostly desert region underdeveloped.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir declared the seven-year war over last Wednesday after reaching an initial settlement with the separate rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Darfur's most powerful rebel force.

Bashir's government signed an agreement in Doha on Tuesday committing Sudan to reaching a final peace deal with JEM by March 15.

But Abdel Wahed's SLA and other rebels have rejected the deal, demanding that security on the ground before talks.

JEM's negotiator in Doha, Ahmed Tugud, told Reuters it was unlikely the sides would meet the March 15 deadline as talks were currently stalled over plans for Sudan's government to sign a separate settlement with an umbrella group of small insurgent factions called the Liberation and Justice Movement.

Tugud said the plan, which he said was being proposed by international mediators, would give undue recognition to tiny rebel groups with little to no military presence on the ground.

"These are two persons pretending to be a rebel group, a man and his wife pretending to be a rebel group. It is rubbish ... We cannot have talks until we have solved this problem."

Darfur's joint U.N./African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force said it could not confirm the reports of the fighting because it did not have bases in the Jabel Marra area.

  • Militias raid Darfur camp, kill two refugees

Wed Feb 10, 2010 / Source: Reuters

EL-FASHER, Sudan, Militias raided a Darfur refugee camp, shooting dead two people and injuring at least 10 in an escalation of tensions in Sudan's restive west, witnesses and U.N. officials said Wednesday.

More...

2009

  • Sudan intends to close down Darfur IDP camps in 2010.  More...
  • UN report documents continuing attacks on the Darfuri population. More...
  • Continuing flow of arms to Darfur, despite embargo.  More...
  • No justice for victims of human rights violations.  More...
  • Women suffer excessively from gender-based violence.  More...
  • Government of Sudan fails to disarm Janjaweed.  More...
    Severe violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.  More... 
  • Army batallion defects to JEM. More... 
  • JEM has reservations about Doha peace talks.  More... 
  • Ethiopia to deploy air force unit, five helicopters in Darfur.  More...
  • Sudanese president’s visit cancelled.  More...
  • Three Darfur rebel factions agree to launch unity process. More...