Author: David Sullivan

The Sudan Tribune has an interesting article on the fallout of the NGO expulsions on North-South political dynamics in Sudan. By including on the black list NGOs working in the ‘Three Areas’ of northern Sudan with special status in the CPA (Abyei, Southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile), it appears that Bashir and friends may have rattled senior leaders in the SPLM. And when you look at the accusations leveled against some of the major international NGOs in a Sudanese newspaper, which Michael Kleinman has posted, it’s no surprise why. Per the Sudanese government, Mercy Corps’ community development program in Abyei ...

Laura Rozen reports that U.N. Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon is in Washington this week and will be meeting with President Obama Tuesday, March 10. Although the visit appears to be framed as a general introduction that will cover topics ranging from nuclear nonproliferation to climate change, NSC spokesperson Mike Hammer particularly noted, “This will also be an opportunity for the Secretary General and the President to discuss the humanitarian situation in Sudan." Given the relatively watered-down statements that came out of both the White House and U.N. Headquarters last week, it’s good to see that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, a forceful ...

The long march towards accountability for war criminals took a significant step forward yesterday, as the Special Court for Sierra Leone convicted three leaders of the Revolutionary United Front, or RUF, rebel group on assorted counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes. These convictions, against Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon, and Augustine Gbao, constitute several exciting precedents for international criminal justice: the first conviction for forced marriage, and the advancement of the use of ‘joint criminal enterprise’ charges, which were used against the trio for conspiring with Charles Taylor to control Sierra Leone’s diamond fields. Although Sierra Leone is still ...

Following a week of “talks about talks,” the Sudanese government and the Justice and Equality Movement, Darfur's most powerful rebel group, have signed an “Agreement of Good Will and Confidence Building For the Settlement of the Problem in Darfur.” The agreement, signed in Doha, is intended as a confidence-building measure to pave the way toward an inclusive peace process. Khartoum and the JEM agreed to end to attacks on displaced persons, allow unobstructed delivery of humanitarian aid, and exchange prisoners. This is a step forward, albeit at very modest one. After more than five years of broken agreements, this accord ...

“I gave the army a free hand to move out in all directions, to use all of its weapons, with no restraints, no restrictions, whatsoever.” –Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, in Agence France-Presse, September 2, 2002 With a report that the International Criminal Court will move against Sudanese President Bashir for crimes against humanity, we thought you might like to be reminded of some of his past comments and behavior. Here is a brief resume of his long and illustrious criminal record: On 30 June 1989 led fellow officers in a mutiny against the democratically elected Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. General ...

The rumble over the roles of advocacy and aid in responding to Darfur continues. The blogosphere provides a great platform for this debate, which engages with some of the core dilemmas at the heart of human rights work. The discussion has brought together a series of interconnected, but very distinct, communities that care about war zones, but often have a tendency to talk past each other. Within their own communities, activists, academics, and aid workers are all fairly mindful of the vexing ethical dilemmas involved in their work. If you talk with almost anyone in this line of work over ...

Rob Crilly reports that the Somali pirates who seized the Ukrainian freighter, MV Faina, and its cargo of Russian tanks have been paid $3.5 million ransom after holding its crew hostage for more than four months. The crew, save the Captain who had a stroke shortly after the attack, should be released shortly (knock on wood). Now what about those 33 T-72 tanks that were evidently destined for the Government of South Sudan? ...

Over at change.org, Michelle and Michael have begun an inspired rumble over the role of advocacy organizations in responding to Darfur. As someone who has worked on both sides of this issue, starting out with a humanitarian agency but now on the advocacy side of the house, there are a few points I think are worth making: Michael asserts that, “Any organization which claims it can save Darfur is courting hubris, at the least.” Point taken, but without political pressure toward such an ambitious goal, the policies of the United States and its allies drift away from actually making the ...

You might have been paying attention to other things on January 20, but major developments unfolded in the Great Lakes region of Africa that morning as 3,000 Rwandan troops crossed into North Kivu, Congo, as part of a joint operation with the Congolese army to take on the FDLR, the Rwandan-affiliated Hutu militia. Although Enough has been pressing for international action to remove the FDLR from eastern Congo for quite a while, several aspects of this operation make us uneasy: Bosco “The Terminator” Ntaganda, indicted by the International Criminal Court, and his dissident rebel faction are collaborating with the Rwandan ...

The Financial Times recently reported that Jarch Capital, an investment firm led by financier Philip Heilberg (which includes several former United States government officials on its board of directors) has leased a jaw-dropping 4,000 square kilometers of arable land—approximately the size of Dubai—in southern Sudan. The F.T. provided further comment in an editorial entitled “Rhodes Redux,” noting the “deal depends as much on control exerted by Paulino Matip, the warlord whose son’s company claims rights to some of the land, as it does on legal title.”Matip is currently second-in-command of the armed forces of Southern Sudan, but until recently led ...