Author: Maggie Fick

Gruesome and alarming stories continue to trickle out of the remote region of Akobo in southern Sudan’s volatile Jonglei state. Just over a week ago, a riverside area of Akobo county was the site of one of the worst outbreaks of violence in southern Sudan since the signing of Sudan’s North-South Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005. Intercommunal violence throughout southern Sudan has made headlines this year perhaps primarily because the death tolls in this semi-autonomous region of Sudan in 2009 thus far exceeds the number of violent deaths recorded in Darfur for the same period. This statistical comparison demonstrates why ...

Women can be the rock on which a freer, safer and more prosperous Africa is built. They just need the opportunity. –Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, August 9, 2009 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is using her first trip to Africa as America’s top diplomat to emphasize the importance of Africa’s women to the future of the continent and to the United States. At every stop on her tour thus far, Secretary Clinton has made an effort to show that it is a priority of the U.S. government to work with partner nations across Africa to empower women as ...

If you are a regular reader of Enough Said, you’re likely up to speed on the basic nuts and bolts of the Abyei issue in Sudan. If you need a quick refresher, check out these blog posts summarizing the ruling of the Abyei Arbitration Tribunal, what it means for the future of Sudan, and why those of us concerned about the future of Sudan can’t afford to forget about Abyei now that the ruling on its long-contested boundaries has been issued. Now that you have the basics down, I wanted to share some useful information from PILPG, an international pro ...

Mark your calendars: The White House has announced that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will meet with President Obama at the White House on Tuesday, August 18. The wires report that the two leaders will discuss a range of issues "including Middle East peace, combating extremism and other regional threats." Here at Enough, we fully expect that any discussion of "other regional threats" will include pressure from the U.S. government on Egypt to participate in international efforts to support a comprehensive peace in Sudan. The Sudan Vision reported that "unnamed sources in Cairo" claim that President Mubarak plans to confer "sometime ...

Two weeks ago today, the Abyei Arbitration Tribunal in The Hague handed down its ruling on the contested boundaries of Abyei, the oil-rich region at the crossroads of Sudan’s North and South. The much-anticipated decision was the subject of a flurry of diplomatic activity in the run-up to the ruling; President Obama’s Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration and the head of the United Nations Mission in Sudan Ashraf Qazi traveled to the town of Abyei, and numerous governments—from China to France— issued statements supporting the ruling and calling for its immediate implemention. Two weeks later, Abyei is out of ...

After last week’s round of Sudan-related hearings on Capitol Hill, which highlighted the life or death implications of the Obama administration’s ongoing Sudan policy review, this week started with tragic news from southern Sudan. At least 185 people were reportedly killed in inter-ethnic violence Sunday in Jonglei's Akobo County, a remote, tense, and heavily armed area in the South. As we have noted before, the upsurge in communal violence in southern Sudan in 2009 has been characterized by the indiscriminate killing of women and children, which is a disturbing shift from the historical practices of cattle-raiding and other traditional conflicts ...

Speaking at yesterday’s hearing, Special Envoy Gration agreed with sentiments from Committee Chairman Kerry (D-MA) that the situation in Darfur had "changed" from the height of the genocide. Gration noted that the levels of violence in Darfur are "getting significantly better," but that "this doesn't mean our efforts will stop," because "one death is too many." He also noted that although it is "very clear" that the Sudanese government armed and supported the Janjaweed militias as proxies "in the beginning" of the genocide in 2003 and 2004, he now believes that "some [of the rebel movements] have some autonomy [from ...

As Annie Duke noted in her guest blog post today for Enough Said, last week, she joined forces with Enough and Refugees International to meet with members of Congress and urge them to support the Obama administration in a comprehensive approach to ending Sudan's multiple crises. In this clip, Annie discusses how inspired she was to see the interest of her elected officials in Sudan, and how it deepened her commitment to continue her activism and fundraising through her organization, Ante Up for Africa. In this clip, Enough advisor Omer Ismail discusses the international community's past "piecemeal" responses to the ...

On Friday, the United Nations took an important step in recognizing an obvious but nonetheless crucial fact about Sudan’s upcoming elections: the people of Darfur may not be able to vote in their country’s elections because of a dispute over the recent national census and because of large-scale displacement of Darfuris due to the ongoing conflict. As Enough argued in a recent strategy paper, Sudan’s upcoming national election poses a series of thorny questions for the international community. To date, these questions have not been acceptably resolved. A key question is: How can a credible election take place in Darfur ...

On Wednesday morning at 10 A.M. in The Hague --4 A.M. in Washington, D.C. --the Abyei Arbitration Tribunal announced its decision regarding the contested boundaries of the crucial region of Abyei in Sudan. Read coverage of the ruling here. Check our blog for coverage and analysis of the aftermath of the ruling. At 12:30 P.M. EST, join us for a live webcast with Enough Policy Assistant Maggie Fick, who will discuss the Abyei ruling, its significance and take your questions ...