Ambassador Dane Smith
In a letter to Ambassador Dane Smith, the newly appointed U.S. Senior Advisor for Darfur, Darfuri diaspora civil society leaders stated: “With the international communities’ focus on referendum for independence in South Sudan, Darfur has been largely overlooked and Omar Al-Basher’s regime has taken the opportunity to further oppress Darfuri civil society and initiate attacks against civilians.”
Today the situation in Darfur is gravely dangerous; with over 4 million people affected by war and depending completely on food aid for almost 8 years. The majority of whom have been internally displaced and remain subject to the direct attacks, abduction, arrest, rape and the deprivation of food, rape of women and girls and sadly their fate is left to be determined by the indicted genocidal criminal Al-Basher.
The escalation of attacks by the Janjaweed and the government army has been increasing since March 2010 after the renewal of fighting between the government and the Darfuri movements. The obstruction of aid assistance and the systematic targeting of the Darfur human right defenders and the civil society activists everywhere in Sudan is dramatically increasing and has brought a new dimension to the tragic situation that our people are living in.
Over the past few months in Darfur there have been several reports of violent attacks by the Government of Sudan (GoS) against the innocent civilians such as the recent attack on Khor Abeche which set off a renewal of fighting in December between the government and the Darfur rebel groups. The aerial bombing of villages by Khartoum and fighting between the government and rebels has resulted in displacement of over 32,000 civilians in December and an estimated 300,000 in 2010 alone, most of whom are left with no access to humanitarian assistance.
Darfuri diaspora rally at the United Nations in 2009
While the government rhetorically claims to be dedicated towards peace negotiations with the Darfuri movements, they have repeatedly violated all the ceasefire agreements; furthermore they have reignited the conflict with SLA-Minni Minawi, the only faction to have signed a peace agreement with GoS. They have also withdrawn their negotiating team from Doha peace talks on December 30th which itself not only shows the lack of commitment to peace, but further undermines the authority of the mediation, the venue and the host country. The government also continues to deny access for humanitarian organizations and UNAMID, which has limited their ability to reach the affected populations particularly in Jebel Marra and the recently displaced from Shangil Tobai, Dar el Salam, and Khor Abeche areas which have limited their ability to provide supplies and security for Darfuri civilians. This demonstrates that the government is acting with total impunity because of lack of serious accountability measures and pressure from the international community including the United States. The lack of and the poor aid conditions is overwhelming in all of the camps in Darfur due to the government restriction since the March 2009 expulsion of the major aid organizations.
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