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This week in the Hague, the International Criminal Court, or ICC, began the war crimes trial of Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese rebel leader charged with systematically recruiting hundreds of children under 15 to fight as soldiers during Congo’s bloody civil war, which resulted in the deaths of roughly 4 million people between 1998 and 2003. Lubanga reportedly showed no emotion as he plead not guilty to the child soldiering charges and insisted that he was trying to bring peace to the Ituri region. (He is not the only indicted war criminal to have made such a ludicrous claim.) Ituri, like ...

The narrative of an irreparably fragmented rebellion in Darfur does not reflect the reality on the ground. This paper identifies key rebel groups, and explains what they represent, what divides them, and—most importantly—what could potentially unite them if a credible, sustained, and internationally backed peace effort was put in place ...

Enough Advisor and resident Darfur expert Omer Ismail recently returned from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he participated in the Second Sudanese Women’s Forum on Darfur, sponsored by Femmes Africa Solidarité, an impressive women’s rights organization run by and for African women. The conference was attended by women from Darfur, women politicians from Sudan’s ruling party, and women from all over Africa, from Mali to Zimbabwe. Human rights champions such as Mary Robinson of Ireland and Ruth Messinger of the United States were also present to show their support for the conference, which aimed not only to emphasize the solidarity of ...

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 ...

On January 14, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1861, extending the mandate of the year-and-a-half old U.N. Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad, or MINURCAT, until March 2010. Last December, while the Security Council discussed the details of the mandate, I held out hope that the final mandate might reflect at least the smallest of indications from the U.N. that it might attempt, through MINURCAT, to lay the groundwork for a broader international effort to deal with the grave internal political crisis and endemic security problems in Chad. I was wrong. Last fall, my colleague Omer Ismail ...

If you have read any of Enough’s recent analyses on Chad, you know by now that the brutally repressive Chadian government (led by desert rebel commando turned president Idriss Déby) is prone to spending millions of dollars on arms instead of social services and then leaving its impoverished citizens to fend for themselves. The latest sobering example of this trend is the government’s unexpected announcement last week of a complete ban on the use of charcoal, which the government said is intended to curb desertification in the arid Sahel region of Central and West Africa. Efforts to combat the effects ...

It sounds like the Chinese may again be mounting an effort at the UN to push for invoking Article 16 to suspend the war crimes investigation of Sudanese President Bashir. This should be a no-brainer for the new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and U.N. Ambassador, Susan Rice, to swat down. The Sudanese Government has done nothing to advance the cause of peace in Darfur, and its forces continue to mount bombing raids in Darfur as recently as yesterday, in violation of any number of existing agreements. When will Beijing understand that being a defense lawyer for Africa’s tyrants is ...

A rushed political process in Somalia now risks undermining the very unity government it seeks to promote and may inadvertently give momentum to radical Islamists. Somali political figures are meeting this week in Djibouti in an effort to select a new, more inclusive Transitional Federal Parliament and a new President to replace Abdullahi Yusuf, who resigned under pressure in December 2008. This is a positive development, and if successful would represent an important step forward in promoting reconciliation and strengthening the role of political moderates while helping to marginalize hardliners and jihadists. Given the importance of this exercise, it must ...

I and several of my colleagues attended the annual gather of the Institute for Inclusive Security several days ago. The keynote remarks were given by Stephen Lewis. Lewis is a very dynamic speaker. I may not agree with all of his policy recommendations, but what he has to say is provocative, thoughtful and very well worth a read. Lewis notes that since October 2000 there have been at least 35 major peace negotiations, “and not a single woman played the role of lead mediator in any of the negotiations.” ...

The Obama Administration is in its earliest days, but it was certainly encouraging to see the President make an early visit to Foggy Bottom and the State Department. Many within the State Department feel the role of diplomacy had been increasingly marginalized over the last eight years, and the visit by Obama and Vice President Biden was clearly meant to change the tone. It is also telling that the President and Secretary of State Clinton used the moment to unveil two heavy hitter special envoys Ambassador Richard Holbrooke (for Afghanistan-Pakistan issues) and former Senator George Mitchell (for the Middle East) ...