Blog

WASHINGTON – As relations between Sudan and South Sudan continue to remain icy since southern independence in July, the two countries’ regional neighbors are critical in promoting peace between the two Sudans, according to a new Enough Project report ...

Prior to South Sudan’s independence in July 2011, Sudan was the largest country in Africa, bordering nine other states. Today, the two Sudans share a diverse and critical geopolitical sub-region that links the Sahara, the Sahel, the Horn, and the Great Lakes. In this report the Enough Project examines some of the two countries’ most important neighbors and regional relationships ...

A weekly round-up of must-read stories, posted every Friday (or on occasion, on Saturday) ...

At an event this week hosted by the Stanley Foundation in New York to recognize the anniversary, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon offered complimentary remarks about the use of R2P to justify action in Côte d’Ivoire and Libya. But it was the U.N. secretary general’s unusually candid insights about the limitations of implementing the Responsibility to Protect in South Sudan recently that stood out ...

The usual hubbub in the lobby of the Sheraton Addis was notably absent on the morning of the fourth day of negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan. In an interview with Enough, lead negotiator Pagan Amum said that the southern government will resume talks on the condition that Khartoum pays for the value of southern oil Khartoum has confiscated, releases vessels carrying shipments of oil from Port Sudan, and guarantees that no further unilateral actions would be taken by the Sudan government going forward ...

The mandate of the Arab League monitoring mission in Syria is set to end and the controversial head of mission, Sudanese General Mustafa al-Dabi, is said to be finalizing a report on the violence in the country to be submitted to a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers. While Sudan’s Foreign Minister Al Ahmed Karti claims the Arab League monitors “are doing fine” the United Nations and many human rights organizations, including the Enough Project, have noted concern ...

The BBC published an article today—notably quoting three Enoughers or former Enoughers—called “How to offset your ‘conflict minerals’ guilt,” about the link between our electronics and the atrocities committed by armed groups in Congo over the control of key mines. However, as the article reveals, this issue is not about feeling guilty but about harnessing the power of technology for good, to feel empowered to help spur change in eastern Congo ...

Apple released its 2012 Sustainability Report last Friday, and it showed that it is doing some things very well on conflict minerals and other things not very well ...

The legal quagmire of Thomas Kwoyelo remained unresolved and the former Lord’s Resistance Army rebel remained in prison last week when the court date to decide whether he would receive amnesty came and went. Last week’s court date passed without convening because of a scheduling conflict, drawing out a case that began in October 2010 and last September appeared to conclude ...

On the one-year anniversary of the commencement of the Southern Sudan referendum, January 9, 2012, the Ngok Dinka people of the disputed Abyei Area formally requested that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, or CERD, immediately consider the actions of the Sudanese government vis-à-vis the Ngok Dinka people in Abyei ...