U.S. and European media

April 15, 2023

Reuters: Oxfam GB appeals against expulsion from Sudan. Aid group Oxfam GB submitted a formal appeal to the Sudanese government on Wednesday over its expulsion from the country, denying allegations it passed information to the International Criminal Court. The British arm of Oxfam International said the humanitarian situation in Darfur has deteriorated since the expulsion of 13 international aid groups in March. "We have already been told that water pumps in some Darfur camps have stopped pumping, and there are growing fears about the potential for outbreaks of disease in the coming rainy season," said Penny Lawrence, Oxfam GB's International Programmes Director. A joint UN-Sudanese assessment of the situation in Darfur reported last month that shortages could appear within months. It said four of the expelled groups served some 1.1 million people.

Agence France-Presse: Sudan condemns Darfur rebels to death. A Sudanese court on Wednesday condemned 10 rebels from the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement to death for an unprecedented attack on Khartoum in 2008 which killed more than 220 people. The men were found guilty of terrorist activities, overthrowing the regime, destruction of public property and possession of illegal arms, he said. Fifty members of JEM -- the most active Darfur rebel group -- have already been condemned to hang over the attack on the capital's twin city of Omdurman in May 2008. "This judgement is illegal, illegitimate and violates international law," JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein told AFP. "This is yet another evidence that the judicial system of the regime is not independent." The verdict is "a clear violation of Doha because the regime recognised there that these guys are war prisoners that have to be exchanged," Hussein said. Last year, the United Nations expressed concern over the trials in the Sudanese courts especially created for the case and urged Khartoum to abolish capital punishment.

Spokane Spokesman-Review: Replacing genocide with hope. The memories, good and bad, came flooding back to Carl and Teresa Wilkens last week upon their return to Rwanda, a verdant place they once called home before the streets ran red with blood. It has been 15 years since Hutu turned on Tutsi and the central African nation's name became a synonym for inhumanity. But the Wilkenses see rebirth in the land where more than 800,000 people were killed within 100 days. "Rwanda is working to overcome the impossible," Carl Wilkens said in a phone interview from the capital, Kigali, "to become known not as a nation of genocide, but as a nation of hope, a nation of progress and a nation of integrity." They continue to fight genocide through their nonprofit educational organization, the World Outside My Shoes. This month they were named Darfur Heroes by the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of human rights organizations opposing the ongoing atrocities in Sudan. It is his hope, he said, "that in the storytelling, people will see and connect with the humanity that we all share."

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].