The Final Abandonment of Darfur Formally Ratified by UN and African Union

The Final Abandonment of Darfur Formally Ratified by UN and African Union

Eric Reeves  |  June 12, 2018  |  https://wp.me/p45rOG-2fy

With despicable dishonesty and gross expediency, the UN and African Union have chosen to abandon the people of Darfur, particularly the 3 million displaced internally or as refugees in eastern Chad. Their decision ignores massive evidence of ongoing violence against civilians—reported primarily by Radio Dabanga, using sources on the ground, and rests ultimately on the completely discredited Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, signed in July 2011 with no effect or positive changes whatsoever.

A recent and important documentary asks of Darfur the question that has now been definitively answered—“Did Evil Win?”

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• UN, AU propose closure of UNAMID sites in Darfur except for Jebel Marra | Sudan Tribune, June 11, 2018 (WASHINGTON)

UN Peacekeeping Chief, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Monday proposed to close all the UNMAID sites in Darfur region expect the greater Jebel Marra area and to increase peacebuilding and development. Lacroix made his proposal during a briefing on an African Union-United Nations report on the strategic review of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur. He said the mission needs to be adapted to Darfur current realities.

[Lacroix in fact ignores a great deal about these “current realities,” particularly the realities of massive, continuing displacement, assaults on non-Arab/African villages and civilians, failure to provide restitution of violently expropriated farmlands, or any prospect of justice for those who have suffered so much over the past fifteen years—ER]

Based on the idea that the security situation is relatively stable,

[This is a disgracefully inaccurate assessment see | https://wp.me/p45rOG-2fs – ER]

he said the peacekeeping should be focused in the site of continued conflict in Jebel Marra while the capabilities of the UN agencies, funds and programmes should serve to consolidate the fragile stability in the rest of Darfur.

[This “fragile stability” is a product of Lacroix’s expediently wishful imagination—a commodity that both UNAMID heads of Mission and the UN DPKO have shown ample capacity for over more than a decade of feckless ineptitude and cowardice—ER]

“The area of operations would be reduced to 13 team sites in the greater Jebel Marra and the Mission headquarters moving from El Fasher to Zalingei, Central Darfur,”. Lacroix proposed. The 13 sites of peacekeeping in Jebel Marra have been identified in the report as Kutum, Saraf Omra, Kabkabiyah, Tawilah, Sortony and Shangil Tobaya (North Darfur), Zalingei, Nertiti and Golo (Central Darfur) and Kalma, Kass, Menawashei and Khor Abeche (South Darfur). Further, the super camp in El Fasher will be transformed into a logistics hub.

[Many areas that have seen recent, intense violence—e.g., Gireida, South Darfur—are to be abandoned to Khartoum’s militia forces, including the notorious Rapid Support Forces. This is unconscionable and will result in massive civilian mortality and suffering—ER]

In line with two-year plan, “the Force strength would be reduced from 8,735 to 4,050 military personnel, and the police component would be reduced from 2,500 officers to 1,870,” Lacroix said.

Here again, the report provides more details about the timetable indicating that by 31 December the forces will be downsized from 8,735 to 5,470 military personnel. Then, by 30 June 2019, the overall strength of the force would be reduced to 4,050.

[These reductions are IN ADDITION to those that the UN Security Council voted to implement when UNAMID’s mandate was renewed in June 2017: 44% of military personnel and 30% of police personnel. The Mission has been completely gutted despite 3 million IDPs and refugees in eastern Chad. Beyond disgrace…ER]

The United Nations and African Union emphasized that the two-year plan and the exit of UNAMID are basically linked to the implementation of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), particularly the dispositions related to land ownership, protection of civilians and basic services to civilians in Darfur.

[The DDPD has done absolutely nothing to address issues of land ownership and restoration—nothing…even as these are the critical issues in any truly meaningful peace for Darfur—ER]

[I will be writing further soon about the implications of the decision to eviscerate the only potential source of civilian and humanitarian protection in Darfur—ER | June 12, 2018]