U.S. and European media

September 30, 2023

AP: Sudan president gets nod to run for second term. Sudan's northern ruling party has named President Omar al-Bashir its candidate in the country's upcoming elections despite a warrant for his arrest on war crimes in Darfur. Tuesday's nomination ends speculation as to whether the party would drop al-Bashir due to the International Criminal Court's war crimes charges against him. The Hague-based court issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir in March, making him the first head of state to be indicted while in office. The elections next April are the first in decades to include all of Sudan. The vote is a key element of the 2005 peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between the country's north and south.

Reuters:  Darfur refugees raped in Chad camps: Amnesty. Women who fled violence in Sudan's Darfur region are being regularly raped in refugee camps in neighboring Chad, despite the presence of U.N.-trained forces, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. The rights group published a report saying Chadian police supported by the United Nations were doing little to protect women and girls from sexual attacks and other violence by villagers, soldiers, family and in some cases aid workers.

The Washington Post: A Cold War Man, a Hot War and a Legal Gray Area. The government of Sudan, eager to curry favor with a U.S. government that accused it of genocide, sought help last fall from an unlikely source: a former Reagan administration official known for his role in the Iran-contra scandal.  The approach by Sudanese officials led to a $1.3 million contract for former national security adviser Robert "Bud" McFarlane, who went on to meet with two of the Obama administration's top policymakers on Sudan and its strife-torn Darfur region, according to documents and interviews. The unusual talks between Sudan and McFarlane featured meetings in Middle Eastern capitals, clandestine communications with Sudan's intelligence service and a final agreement with the government of Qatar, which is employing McFarlane as part of its peacemaking role in the eastern African region.

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