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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 ...

Unbelievable. Well, not entirely. We are talking about the government of Sudan. Yesterday, Khartoum signed a confidence-building agreement with Darfur’s most significant rebel group, the Justice and Equality movement, or JEM. And today, Reuters reports that the JEM has accused the Sudanese government of launching new attacks in Darfur, including government aircraft bombings in the East Jebel Marra region of South Darfur. Reuters also noted, “There had been an unusually high number of Antonov aircraft taking off and landing early on Wednesday” in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. Is this Khartoum’s new definition of a charm offensive in ...

Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work. Please give us feedback on this new feature by commenting below. Congo-based journalist Michael Kavanagh wrote a moving tribute to Alison Des Forges, the Rwanda expert and longtime Human Rights Watch researcher, who died last week in a plane crash. Some people ...

With all the hype surrounding the impending indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, you may be thinking, “Where in the world is the ICC?” Depending on your knowledge base, you may mean that literally or figuratively, and we’ve created a map to catch you up on both. The International Criminal Court, or ICC, is a permanent court located in The Hague, Netherlands that has jurisdiction over cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Click here for an interactive map that highlights the cases currently before the ICC and the situations that the ICC is investigating. For more information ...

The writing is on the wall, the pieces are in place, and Déby’s mercenaries are landing attack helicopters in Abéché. All this can only mean one thing: rebellion season is fully underway in Chad. Enough Said reported recently on the developments of the Khartoum-backed Chadian rebel coup plot. Since then, it has become increasingly likely that there will be coup attempt on N’Djamena in the coming weeks. Chad expert Roland Marchal suspects that Khartoum might encourage the Chadian rebels to attack if the ICC issues an arrest warrant for President Bashir. This move may be Khartoum’s best way to counter ...

Read what the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has to say in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine ...

Finally, there appears to be some good news coming out of eastern Congo, to balance a steady stream of horror stories. The numbers of ex-FDLR combatants and their dependents that have presented themselves to disarmament and repatriation centers has sharply increased in the three weeks since the announcement and commencement of the Rwanda-Congo joint military operation against the FDLR. As of yesterday, a total of 209 ex-combatants and 338 dependents have returned to Rwanda in 2009, aided by the U.N. Mission in Congo, or MONUC’s Disarmament, Demobilization, Repatriation, Reintegration, and Resettlement program (also known as DDRRR). The largest repatriation in ...

A funny, and somewhat surreal, exchange in the State Department briefing this last week, after a reporter asked the acting State Department Spokesman, Robert Wood, if the administration would support the work the International Criminal Court, or ICC, is “doing related to Darfur and the situation in Sudan?” MR. WOOD: Certainly. As I said, Matt, you know, we want to see those who commit atrocities, who are responsible for atrocities taking place anywhere around the world, held accountable. QUESTION: By the ICC, or would you prefer to see it done by some other -- MR. WOOD: Well, the ICC is ...

Jeffrey Sachs, an adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has been making the speechmaking rounds, and talking about Darfur. He starts with an interesting premise: that the problems in Darfur are primarily development related, not military. Sachs is correct that tensions over resources, particularly water, in Darfur are acute and longstanding. According to the article, Sachs asserted “cutting wasteful spending on military operations and what he described as excessive corporate bonuses would help the world mobilise enough funds to tackle poverty and ensure comprehensive access to primary healthcare and safe water.” That all sounds rather nice, and not surprisingly ...

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice vented her frustration at the failure of the U.N. Security Council to reach agreement on a statement condemning the escalating violence and civilian deaths in Darfur: We're really quite deeply disappointed that the Security Council after over a week of effort couldn't reach consensus on a clear presidential statement that would have condemned the increased bloodshed in Darfur…We had hoped to have a presidential statement that would have spoken with one voice in condemning the ongoing violence. Who blocked the Council from issuing a unanimous presidential statement? Yes, you guessed it, it ...