U.S. and European Media

September 26, 2023

Reuters: Darfur Peace Talks Face "Tremendous Challenge": U.S. Darfur peace talks will be a "tremendous challenge" requiring all sides to make compromises to settle the conflict in Sudan's remote west, the top U.S. diplomat in Sudan said on Wednesday. Charge D'affaires Alberto Fernandez said U.S. envoy Andrew Natsios would begin his longest visit to Sudan this week with a trip to Darfur and also to push a separate north-south peace process where rising tensions are worrying Washington. Talks are due to start in Libya on October 27 to end the violence Washington calls genocide. Fernandez said to make the talks successful rebels had to unify and agree on a clear negotiating position and the government had to be flexible. "It's a tremendous challenge," he told Reuters. "If one is sincere about peace in Darfur then a lot of people have to compromise." Fernandez said the U.N. and African Union mediators needed to go into the talks with "eyes wide open" and be aware of the shortcomings of last year's deal.

Associated Press: U.N. Authorizes Darfur Spillover Force. The United Nations Security Council authorized on Tuesday a European Union force and U.N. police to help protect civilians in Chad and the Central African Republic caught in the spillover from the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region. It authorizes the EU, under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which allows the use of military force, to deploy a force for one year in eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic. The force will help improve security, facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, and "contribute to protecting civilians in danger, particularly refugees and displaced persons." At an open Security Council meeting on peace in Africa Tuesday, President Bush strongly supported the resolution and the mission. "It's a step in the right direction. It's a practical solution to a big problem. It's a part of a grand solution," said Bush who was at U.N. headquarters in New York to attend the General Assembly. "This U.N. mission's going to help national and local governments exercise sovereignty over their territory. It's going to allow workers to deliver humanitarian aid." The resolution expresses deep concern "at the activities of armed groups and other attacks in eastern Chad, the northeastern Central African Republic and western Sudan which threaten the security of the civilian population, the conduct of humanitarian operations in those areas and the stability of those countries, and which result in serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law." The draft resolution calls for a maximum of 300 U.N. international police and 50 military liaison officers as well as "an appropriate number of civilian personnel."

Reuters: U.N. Council Members Promise Not to Neglect Africa. France offered to send a warship off the coast of Somalia, the United States warned Sudan to honor a cease-fire and Belgian advocated withholding aid from nations that exploited child soldiers. But African delegates cautioned U.N. Security Council members at a summit on Africa called by France on Tuesday that they, not the West, needed to set their own agenda and too many promises had gone by the wayside. "Africa's agenda will increasingly be defined by the African Union," said AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare. "We hope to move beyond words, to move beyond promises because too many promises have already been made to Africa." The unusual session on cooperation with Africa, chaired by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, came several hours after the 15-member body authorized the European Union to send soldiers to Chad and the Central Africa Republic to protect civilians from violence spilling over from neighboring Darfur. President George W. Bush as well as Sarkozy called for quick deployment of a planned United Nations-African Union force to Darfur to bolster the 7,000 African troops there. "We call on all parties to cease arm sales to the combatants," Bush said. "We expect people gathered around this table to send a focused message that innocent life matters." "We expect President (Omar Hassan) Bashir to observe a cease-fire during next month's peace talks, and we want the rebels to do the same," Bush said. "When we find genocide it's time to do something about it," Bush said. "Time is of the essence."

Arizona State Press: 'Your voice makes a difference to the people of Darfur'. Daoud Hari knows what it's like to be a refugee. He knows what it's like to flee from his own government, and what it's like to be imprisoned and tortured. He knows, because he is a refugee from the genocide in Darfur. Hari spoke to about 150 ASU students, faculty and community members Tuesday evening to share his experiences as a Darfurian refugee. Along with Ibrahim Mousa Adam, another refugee, Hari came to ASU as a part of Voices for Darfur, a traveling presentation of the Save Darfur Coalition and sponsored by the ASU chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur. "I have a vision in the future that if the genocide was corrected, the Sudanese people would be secure," he told the audience. "Sudanese people would have peace." Hari, who was once jailed and arrested while translating for a Chicago Tribune reporter in Darfur, shared numerous stories from his time in the region. Hari translated for media outlets such as The New York Times, BBC and National Geographic, and while helping them, witnessed villages being burned down, victims being captured by the Janjaweed and the killing of numerous people, he said. It's important to have U.S. commitment to ending the genocide because peacekeepers need to be sent into Darfur to make the country safe and secure, Hari said. "Your voice makes a difference to people of Darfur, because they know they are not alone," Adam said. "You can ask your President Bush, your government officials, to send peacekeeping forces into Darfur."

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The Darfur Daily News is a service of the Save Darfur Coalition.  To subscribe to the Daily News, please email [email protected]. For media inquiries, please contact Ashley Roberts at (202) 478-6181, or [email protected].