U.S. and European media

November 10, 2022

Reuters/AFP: Parties point out intimidation and fraud in Sudan.  Sudan's political parties accused each other of widespread fraud and intimidation as voters began registering for the nation's first multi-party elections in 24 years due next April.  Bickering between the NCP and SPLM boiled over at a UN- sponsored meeting last week. US Sudan envoy Scott Gration failed to persuade the former enemies to reach a resolution after extending a trip to Sudan to hold three days of intensive talks.  Both sides said on Sunday said they would meet again yesterday and today in another attempt to reach an agreement.  Voting has already been delayed from July, but the election commission is still struggling to meet deadlines and registration made a slow start on Nov. 1.

IRIN: In Brief: Darfur groups flouting arms embargo - new report. Armed groups in Sudan's Darfur region have continued to violate a UN arms embargo as well as international humanitarian and human rights law, a new report by a UN panel of experts has said.  "All parties to the conflict continue to fail to meet their affirmative obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law in areas under their control," the report said.  "Among the armed movements, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) is the most active violator of the arms embargo, carrying out repeated attacks," it said.

The following op-ed in the Huffington Post was written by Julia Fromholz of Human Rights First: U.S. Must Lead UN to New Action on Darfur.  Three weeks ago, the Obama administration announced its comprehensive policy toward Sudan, relying on both incentives and pressures to move that country toward peace. The clearest manifestation of the policy to date--renewal of U.S. economic sanctions--was distinctly unilateral. Because progress in Sudan will be elusive without the multilateral action President Obama consistently emphasizes, the administration should seize an immediate opportunity to lead a collective response to new evidence of human rights abuses in Darfur.  Some officials and commentators argue that the multilateral sanctions on Sudan are ineffective. They neglect to mention, however, that those sanctions have never been enforced. Instead, the countries charged with enforcing the embargo--those states that comprise the UN Security Council--have failed to act on the last five expert reports on violations of the arms embargo, thereby allowing violations to be committed with no risk of punitive consequences.

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].