- From Radio Dabanga:
Authorities in North Darfur closed 27 Schools in the Tagabu and Siyyah area two days ago. The closure happened two days ago because residents of those areas refused to allow their children to go to school for fear of being intimidated and attacked by Chadian opposition forces. The regions reportedly became in recent days the scene of killing looting and rape by the Chadian opposition forces. Mohamed Yahya, spokesman for the Siyyah association told Radio Dabanga the residents started to express their concern about the presence of Chadian opposition forces since they were moved there a month ago. He added that the presence of those forces not only caused anxiety among residents but also caused hundreds of citizens to flee the region.
- From Radio Dabanga:
Residents of Kabkabiya have stayed last night in a state of fear and panic after gunmen used heavy machine guns and abundantly fired in the air. In the first moments people thought that Chadian opposition forces had attacked the city but later they found out that the shots were fired by a group of border guards who were said to be celebrating the retrieve of a vehicle looted earlier by armed militias. Local residents in Kabkabiya raised concern about loosing the city and several other areas in North Darfur State to Chadian opposition forces, calling on the government to intervene and stop the violations.
- Sudan 365 - Op-Ed:
President Obama: Hear the Beat of the Drums…Now
January 9 marks the fifth anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the 20 year North-South War in Sudan. That war resulted in over 2 million deaths and 6 million displaced persons. It destroyed the infrastructure of the South and devastated lives, trust and hope. Today, the CPA is at risk of collapse. Sudan is in danger of returning to full-scale war. Only President Obama’s personal involvement with world leaders can salvage the CPA. But, time is running out.
The CPA established a new political, military and economic system based on the values of justice, democracy, and human rights. It also provided a process to determine borders between North and South, for popular elections in 2009 (postponed to April 2010), and for a referendum in 2011 for the South to separate if unity is not attractive. It includes a model for other marginalized areas of Sudan or could be amended to include other marginalized areas within its terms.
Assistance by and pressure from the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and Norway were essential to negotiating and signing the CPA. Unfortunately, as so often happens, the international community’s support for implementation and enforcement has been woefully insufficient. It now must make up for lost time.
The National Congress Party (NCP), Sudan’s ruling party, came to power by military coup in 1989. It has continued its governing tactic of “divide and rule” despite the CPA and has successfully maintained the poverty, malnutrition, and lack of education and health care affecting Christians and animists in the South. It has similarly marginalized the Beja in the East, the Nuba peoples of Kordofan province, and the Shilluk and Dinka of the Upper Nile. And, of course, it continues to perpetrate genocide against my own people in Darfur.
Tensions related in part to the NCP’s obstruction of the CPA have provoked renewed violence in South Sudan. Its intransigence has prevented conditions essential to free and fair elections. An election in April rigged to legitimize the NCP and its leader (President Omar al-Bashir indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity) threatens the integrity of the referendum and easily could push the country into full-scale war. It would enable the NCP to complete its “final solution” in Darfur. Millions of additional lives would be at risk. Destabilization of the entire region is a realistic possibility.
Human rights activists around the world recognize the need for immediate re-engagement with Sudan through diplomacy by world leaders. On January 9th, “Sudan 365: A Beat for Peace” kicks off an international campaign urging intensive and coherent diplomatic support to prevent increased violence and provide civilian protection. Some of the world’s most famous drummers are coming together to create a ‘beat for peace’ in Sudan. Sudan 365 will release a film of this global beat for peace upon launch of the campaign.
Sudanese in the U.S. and concerned Americans have been calling on President Obama since his campaign to assume personal leadership in facilitating peace in Sudan. He has not heard our words. I can only hope that he will respond to the beat of the drums—long a symbol of freedom for Africans. The lives of my relatives, friends and countrymen in Sudan depend on it.
_______________
