U.S. and European media

March 26, 2023

Reuters: US mulls options for South Sudan secession vote. The United States hopes next month's presidential election in Sudan will set the stage for a "civil divorce, not a civil war" over moves by the oil-rich south to secede, the Obama administration's special envoy said on Thursday. Scott Gration acknowledged problems with preparations for the April vote. But he said it should still occur on time so democratic structures are put in place to deal with the looming issue of the status of southern Sudan, which will be decided by a referendum next January.

Bloomberg: Aid Agencies in Sudan Urged to Prepare for Potential Conflict. The Japanese government intends to send a group of observers to Sudan next April to participate in the monitoring of the first general election in more than 20 years under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Tokyo is expected to send 15-20 personnel, including experts from the private sector and local embassy officials. These observers will work with those from other nations to inspect polling stations and monitor the counting of votes, reported Nikkei news service today.  Japan's delegation is expected to remain there until mid-April, when the election results will have been announced.

AFP: No reason to delay Sudan elections: minister. Sudan has no reason to delay its elections next month which will go ahead as planned, a minister insisted on Thursday, after western observers called for a postponement. "The date of the elections remains" April 11-13, Sudan's state minister for foreign affairs, Samani al-Wassila, told AFP here ahead of a two-day Arab summit starting on Saturday in Sirte, the hometown of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi. The Carter Center, which has been allowed to observe Sudan's electoral process, last week urged the authorities to delay the elections because of what it said was the National Elections Commission's "limited capacity" to organise the polls. Opposition parties had already called for a delay.

Reuters: U.N. peacekeeping boss orders probe of Darfur ambush. A peacekeeping patrol was ambushed earlier this month in the mountainous Jabel Marra area, which the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Movement loyal to Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur says it controls. The group has denied any involvement in the attack, though the Sudanese army says rebels were responsible. The head of U.N. peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, told reporters he wanted to know who was responsible for the ambush of 63 peacekeepers. He added that the mission in Darfur, known as UNAMID, had the right to go anywhere in the region.

The following op-ed by Eric Reeves was published in The Boston Globe: Once again, world is silent on Darfur. For all the attention Darfur has received and for all the humanitarian assistance that it has been provided, innocent civilians are once again being killed as part of a ruthless counterinsurgency campaign by the Khartoum regime. Poised to retain power in next month's compromised national elections, this regime will continue its 20-year history of civilian destruction throughout Sudan until the world gets serious about pressuring it to stop.