The military denied the accusation, saying in a statement Sunday that its air force didn’t carry out any airstrikes in the city Saturday. Sudan is under international pressure to crack down on Arab militiamen blamed for attacking African villagers in Darfur.The RSF blamed the military for the attack in Omdurman. Mohammed Barbary Ahab el-Nabi, an Awalad Zeid tribal leader in the western town of el-Geneina, was sentenced last week after being found guilty of “looting cows and burning properties” in the village of Dory Monkish, said Abdel Moniem Taha, director of human rights at the Sudanese Justice Ministry. Meanwhile, a Sudanese official said authorities in Khartoum had handed down their first known conviction against a Janjaweed leader. “There is mass suffering, but it is not genocide.” “Abuses are still taking place,” said Jean Hilaire Mbeambea, Cameroon’s ambassador to the African Union. The United Nations has begun investigating possible war crimes in Darfur, but no other government besides that of the United States has called the situation in Darfur a genocide. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in July that Sudan’s government and allied Arab militia, the Janjaweed, had committed acts of genocide against Darfur’s non-Arab villagers. Nearly 1.5 million more have fled to refugee camps. Those tensions exploded into violence in February 2003, when two African rebel groups took up arms over what they regard as unjust treatment by the government in their struggle with Arab countrymen.Īn estimated 70,000 people have died since the conflict broke out, according to U.N. The $220 million, one-year operation will be funded mainly by the European Union and the United States, Djinnit said.ĭarfur’s troubles stem from long-standing tensions between nomadic Arab tribes and their African farming neighbors over dwindling water and agricultural land. The new mission will also include 815 civilian police officers and 164 civilian staff, Djinnit said. The observers have been protected by an armed security force of 310 troops. The force will include 450 unarmed military observers, a major increase from the 80 who are currently deployed there to monitor a shaky cease-fire between two rebel groups fighting government troops and allied militia.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |