Passers-by didn’t know what was happening. A helicopter was parked in the middle of the street, one block away from the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

What seemed like a wrong turn was actually a direct message to world leaders. As the U.N. Security Council debated its hybrid peacekeeping mission to Darfur, activists brought this helicopter one block away to deliver a strong message to the world’s leading nations: “Fulfill your promise to Darfur.”

Jerry Fowler, Save Darfur Coalition president, holds a petition to the U.N. Security Council with more than 55,000 signatures urging world leaders to “fulfill their promise to Darfur.” Behind Fowler is a helicopter — a symbol of the world’s failure to supply critical helicopters and equipment so desperately needed by the UNAMID peacekeeping mission.

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A year ago today, people around the world gained hope that change was coming to Darfur. After four years of killings, rape, and destroyed villages, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to deploy a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force, known as UNAMID, to protect the people of Darfur.

One year has passed, and the world community has failed to deliver the basic support the mission needs to succeed.

One key gap in the force’s capability is its lack of helicopters, which can enable the force to operate effectively and react quickly. The force is seeking a mere 18 transport helicopters, but so far, no country has stepped forward to provide even one.

A new report compiled by an aviation expert titled “Grounded: The International Community’s Betrayal of UNAMID,” presents data on which countries have suitable helicopters and the number available for deployment to Darfur.

Read the report and an AP article covering this issue to learn more.

Click here to urge the Permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to fulfill their promise to the people of Darfur.

Salim Salim, the former chief mediator for the African Union in Darfur, published an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune yesterday strongly criticizing the international community for failure to support UNAMID:

If the international community is serious about fulfilling its responsibility to protect civilians in Darfur, it can start by providing the basics that Unamid urgently needs. Such support could have saved some of those peacekeepers who died this month gallantly trying to protect civilians. The least we can do in their memory is to make sure that no more civilians or peacekeepers perish because of resource constraints.

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Yesterday, I wrote about a Darfur Consortium report that illustrates the effects of the international community’s inadequate efforts to deploy UNAMID, the A.U.-U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur.

The report received a high-level endorsement today. Rodolphe Adada, the Joint A.U.-U.N. Special Representative for Darfur, expressed his appreciation for the Consortium’s effort to produce the report.

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As the one-year anniversary of the authorization of UNAMID approaches, we are constantly reminded of the world’s failure to protect the people of Darfur.

The Darfur Consortium released a report today that provides a view of Darfur from the ground, the miserable conditions that Darfuri civilians are enduring, and the inability of a long-delayed and ill-equipped peacekeeping force to protect them.

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Our partner organization, GI-NET, recently recorded the following interview with Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

In the last two weeks, 8 peacekeepers have been killed in Darfur. Commenting on the loss of 5 Rwandan soldiers, Rwanda Defense Force spokesman Jill Rutaremara said:

I imagine if UNAMID had better equipment, for instance, if they had attack helicopters, if they had surveillance aircraft and other logistical support, and if their number was 26,000, as it was planned, I’m sure the situation would not be the same on the ground.

These comments underscore the relationship between the unacceptably slow deployment of UNAMID, and the dangerous situation on the ground in Darfur today. UNAMID was supposed to add 17,000 additional troops to the 9,000 AMIS troops already on the ground. To date, less than 1,000 troops—or less than 6% of the total—have actually been added

But what is the story behind this unacceptably slow deployment? A review of published UN reports shows an embarrassingly inadequate effort so far: (more…)

Journalist Diana Mukkaled wrote an interesting piece last weekend in the Arabic Daily, Asharq Alawsat, about ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s charges of genocide against Sudanese president Omar
al-Bashir.

She suggests that many in the Arab media have been too quick to condemn the charges, saying:

Confronting the indictment must be preceded by proving the injustice that surrounds it. But for sovereignty to precede justice, this is a violation of the rights of those groups and victims, estimated at tens of thousands, as they remain in their [refugee] camps with no real indications of when their ordeal will be dealt with.

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The buzz is building for this summer’s Olympics. There are many records set to be broken and many athletes will establish themselves as the future of their respective sports. However, some athletes have another thought in the back of their minds - the suffering men, women, and children in Darfur. Most of those athletes have joined with Team Darfur to raise awareness about Darfur and to encourage China, the Olympic host, and all nations of the world to take responsible actions to alleviate the suffering of so many Darfurians.
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Niemat Ahmadi, Darfuri Liaison Officer at the Save Darfur Coalition today addressed an open meeting of the States Parties to the International Criminal Court at UN Headquarters in New York. The meeting comes just three days after the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, announced that he is seeking an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir.
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