U.S. and European media

June 17, 2023

Reuters: Sudan forces still attacking Darfur civilians -UN. The U.N. human rights investigator for Sudan said on Tuesday that Khartoum's forces continue to carry out land and air attacks on civilians in Darfur, and arrest and torture activists and aid workers there. Sima Samar, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Sudan, also voiced concern at "large scale killings" in the south, where several hundred civilians died in inter-tribal clashes in March and April amid growing violence in the region. But diplomats said Sudan was trying at the United Nations Human Rights Council this week to win backing from African and Islamic states to block Western attempts to extend her mandate to report on violations in Sudan for a further year. Her latest report, covering from last August to her visit to Sudan earlier this month, was also issued on Tuesday. "Land and air attacks by government forces on civilians in Darfur took place during the reporting period," it said. Air attacks in Darfur are banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions and failed ceasefires, but Khartoum has in the past reserved the right to attack the Justice and Equality Movement and other rebels who did not sign a 2006 Darfur peace deal.

Reuters: INTERVIEW-Sudan ready for new Darfur ceasefire: negotiator. Sudan's government is ready to call a fresh ceasefire in Darfur and is exploring new ways to end its related "war of attrition" with neighbouring Chad, a presidential advisor said on Tuesday. Ghazi Salaheddin, who became the Khartoum government's new chief negotiator in Darfur last month, told Reuters he was increasingly optimistic an end to the six-year conflict was within reach. "I can see it, but I cannot touch it," he said in an interview. Salaheddin, seen as a more conciliatory figure than his two predecessors in the negotiator's job, said he had recently toured Darfur and found public support for the insurgency, and the numbers of clashes, falling. The Darfur conflict has also been complicated by troubled relations between Sudan and Chad, which Khartoum accuses of supporting JEM.  Salaheddin said any full solution to Darfur depended on healing the rift between the Sudan and Chad, which borders Darfur.

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