Current Situation

This page is updated monthly and contains key news stories about the situation in Darfur. 

Concern over fresh Darfur fighting

Al Jazeera, March 3, 2010

Hundreds feared dead in Darfur clashes -- U.N.

KHARTOUM, March 1 (Reuters) - 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.

(Additional reporting by Khaled Abdelaziz; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Militias raid Darfur camp, kill two refugees
Wed, Feb 10 2010

By Andrew Heavens

EL-FASHER, Sudan (Reuters) - 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.

The raid followed the murder of a militia member's relative who appeared to be searching the camps in Kass, South Darfur for the suspect, U.N. officials in Darfur said.

"The Janjaweed (militia) came in on horses and camels and were looting and shooting," Adam Ali, a resident in the Baytari camp in Kass town, told Reuters by telephone. "They burned many huts and looted the people's belongings."

The United Nations estimates 300,000 have died in the humanitarian crisis sparked after Khartoum mobilized militias to quell a revolt by mostly non-Arab rebels in early 2003. More than 2 million Darfuris fled the conflict to makeshift camps surrounding urban centers.

The International Criminal Court is reconsidering a charge of genocide against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir who is already wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC prosecutor has said he will use last year's expulsion of 13 international aid agencies from Darfur as new evidence against Bashir.

A patrol of U.N./African Union UNAMID peacekeepers on Tuesday saw armed horsemen riding into the camp, while others surrounded the settlement, one senior U.N. official said on condition of anonymity.

"They were members of an Arab militia, apparently related to the man who was killed. They were shooting sporadically when they entered the camp," the official told Reuters.

Ali said four people were killed, but the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) put the death toll at two, with 10 injured.

"Ten IDPs (internally displaced people) were taken to Kass hospital. Another two were shot dead," said OCHA spokesman Samuel Hendricks.

"It is concerning because it shows the level of tension. Things can easily escalate and get out of control," he added.

Some gaps in humanitarian assistance were left after last year's expulsion of aid agencies, those left working in Sudan's west have said. But the government has urged them to train and support Sudanese agencies to replace them.

Peace talks in Qatar have made little progress with rebel groups divided and sporadic clashes continuing on the ground.

2nd December 2009

Sudan intends to close down Darfur IDP camps in 2010
The Sudanese government will begin closing down the camps for the internally displaced population (IDPs) in Darfur next year, according to the humanitarian aid commissioner Hasabu Abdel-Rahman.   Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) spokesperson, Ahmed Hussein, urged the international community to intervene and press Khartoum to reverse its decision.  More...

UN report documents continuing attacks on the Darfuri population
The disproportionate use of force by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their auxiliary forces, results in killings, injuries and displacements. Internally
displaced persons continue to suffer from the inability to return to their homes, as well as from the lack of adequate humanitarian services, partly caused by the expulsion of international NGOs in March 2009.  More...

Continuing flow of arms to Darfur, despite embargo
Arms and ammunition continue to enter Darfur, despite the UN-imposed embargo. Many of the arms and ammunition used in Darfur were made in China.  More...

Three Darfur rebel factions agree to launch unity process. More...