Author: Tom Burton

U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan retired Maj. General Scott Gration briefed bloggers at a round table Friday claiming there was "agreement on the overall broad framework on what we call incentives and pressures." Asked about the SudanNow campaign he said "if anybody wants to come and help us, come on down." ...

President Obama declared today he cares deeply about Darfur and wants a strong unified international message to get aid groups back on the ground in Darfur. This is the extract of his comments to the press after his meeting with United Nation's Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon: "...one of the things that we spent I think the most time talking about was the issue of Darfur. As many of you are aware, we have an ongoing crisis in Darfur that has heightened recently, where the Khartoum government has kicked out some of the most important nongovernmental organizations that provide direct humanitarian ...

New York Times editorial published today, echoing Enough's policy on Sudan: "...The African Union (seeking to protect one of its own), some Arab states (Libya rates special condemnation), and China (mesmerized by Sudan’s oil riches) are pressing the United Nations Security Council to delay the indictment for a year to give peace talks in Darfur a chance. The United States and its allies should block any such move. Mr. Bashir’s defenders have made that same argument ever since the court prosecutor sought the arrest warrant in November. Four months later, government attacks continue, and it is clear that Mr. Bashir ...

The White House has given a cautious response to the ICC arrest warrant against Sudan President, Omar al-Bashir. Asked if the President supported the ICC warrants and what planning the Administration had for any retaliation, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said: "...The White House believes that those who have committed atrocities should be held accountable; that as this process moves forward, that we would urge restraint on the part of all parties, including the government of Sudan; that further violence against civilian Sudanese or foreign interests is to be avoided and won't be tolerated." "The President and this White House are ...

Actor George Clooney last night met separately with President Obama and Vice President Biden at the White House, winning assurances Darfur is one of the major priorities of the new administration. “They assured me and wanted to assure the rest, whoever else is listening, this is high on their agenda,” Clooney was reported after the meetings. “This is a huge policy step for us.” ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper reported Obama and Biden told Clooney that before the White House can send an envoy, there needs to be a full policy in place on Darfur. The ABC report said Clooney ...

The International Criminal Court is set to issue an arrest warrant for Sudan President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur according to separately sourced reports by the New York Times and Reuters. The reports were dismissed by Sudan. Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, Sudan's envoy to the UN, told Al Jazeera an arrest warrant against al-Bashir, "means nothing to us". "The anticipated arrest warrant for President Bashir is the potential game-changer the Sudanese people have been waiting for to shake up the deadly status quo that has led to millions of deaths in Darfur and Southern Sudan," Enough Project Co-chair, John Prendergast, ...

The U.S. has demanded an immediate end to all violence in Darfur and a commitment to the peace process under Joint Chief Mediator Djibril Yipènè Bassolé. In a written statement issued late Tuesday, State Department acting spokesperson Robert Wood said: "The United States condemns the military activity carried out by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in North and South Darfur since January 22, as well as the incursion by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) into Muhajaria and other areas of South Darfur, which resulted in an increase of violence over the last week." "This fighting and subsequent Government of ...

Associated Press is reporting General Laurent Nkunda, leader of the strongest rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been arrested. According to various reports, the feared Congolese rebel leader was apprehended Friday by a joint force of Rwandan and Congolese army troops in Rwanda. The BBC reported Nkunda crossed the border after resisting a joint Rwandan-Congolese operation to arrest him. His arrest removes one obstacle to peace but other rebel groups remain active. In recent weeks Nkunda’s once loyal troops had begun to splinter away from the flamboyant, but tyrannical leader. AP reported around 4,000 Rwandan troops ...