Darfur Violence Spreads to Chad

The violence in Darfur has spread over the Sudanese border and into Chad, the U.S. media reported on February 28, 2006. Chad hosts about 300,000 black African refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan who have fled murder and rape by the Sudanese government-sponsored Janjaweed Arab militia. At the same time, Chad suffers from its own domestic problems, having dealt with its own armed insurgency since 1998.
 
Reports by the United Nations (UN) and Human Rights Watch have shown that violence between the Chadian rebels and the Chadian militia has recently intensified along the Sudanese border. The Chadian government accuses the Sudanese government of arming and funding Chadian rebels in the east, where refugees from Darfur have settled. Reports have also revealed that Chadians have become targets of cross-border attacks by Sudanese militia. Both of these events have sent 8,000 to 10,000 civilians (most women and children) from Chad and refugees from Darfur fleeing across the border into Sudan, according to the United Nations refugee organization (UNHCR).

Human rights groups have worried in recent months that Chad might be drawn into the Darfur conflict. The possibility is looking more likely, as both Chad and Sudan accuse one another of supporting the other side’s rebel groups.  ''You may have thought the terrible situation in Darfur couldn't get worse, but it has,'' said Peter Takirambudde, the director of Human Rights Watch in Africa, ''Sudan's policy of arming militias and letting them loose is spilling over the border, and civilians have no protection from their attacks, in Darfur or in Chad.''

Plan for UN Peacekeepers in Darfur is Resisted by Sudanese Government

As the situation intensifies between Darfur and Chad, and as civilians, mostly women and children, continue to flee violent attack and rape, it has become more and more evident that the 7,000 African Union troops, which have been trying to stop the violence since 2004, are woefully undersupplied and too few in number to really make a difference.

The United Nations has been developing a plan to send at least 14,000 UN peacekeepers to Darfur to replace the African Union troops. The UN can only do this with the approval of the African Union. The government of Sudan had initially agreed to this plan, but now says that a UN presence would be reminiscent of colonialism, and is lobbying African countries to reject the idea. Critics surmise that the Sudanese government may be trying to stall until China takes over as head of the UN Security Council in April. (UN Security Council leadership rotates on a month-by-month basis.)

During the month of February, when the U.S. was in leadership of the UN Security Council, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, pledged to introduce a resolution for a UN peacekeeping mission to take over in Sudan by the end of February. However, the resolution has not yet materialized. The Bush administration has, however, begun to discuss the possibility of sending NATO troops to make peace in Darfur.

Other Crises in Africa

Several other crises continue in Africa, despite receiving less media attention than the Darfur crisis. On February 12, Reuters reported that four million people have died in Congo since the beginning of the country’s civil war in 1998. Although the war officially ended in 2003, the daily death toll is still very high: 1,200 people each day. According to Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, this death toll is equivalent to a tsunami "every six months, year after year after year.” Egeland said, "Too few leaders understand that four million people have died and many more can die unless we put it right.” Unfortunately, the UN received only $125 million for Congo in 2005 from its member nations, which is half of what it sought and just one-tenth of what it received for the tsunami.

Another area in which funding is falling far short of what is necessary is international support for Angolan refugees in Zambia’s refugee camps, hundreds of which have set out by foot to walk dozens of miles in search of food. The United Nations warned the international community in January 2006 that money and food was running out in its refugee camps in Zambia and also in Congo.  The refugee camps faced a shortfall of $8.5 million and when the money did not appear, were forced to cut the diets down to only 1,400 calories for each refugee each day, which is equivalent to subsisting on one Big Mac, large fries, ketchup and a Coke each day. New donations in February allowed refugees’ diets to increase to 1,700, still short of the World Food Program’s recommended daily allotment.

Those living in East Africa and the Horn of Africa are also facing starvation. Eight to 11 million people in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania, and Uganda, are facing terrible famine. The food shortage is due to drought and the resulting failure of crops and deaths of livestock. The situation has been intensified by ongoing conflict in the region and by terrible poverty that prevents victims from seeking other options when these situations occur.

Sources:
* “U.N.: Chadians Flee to Sudan’s Darfur.” The Associated Press. Feb. 28, 2006.
* Hoge, Warren. “Peacekeepers and Diplomats, Seeking to End Darfur’s Violence, Hit Roadblock.” New York Times, March 1, 2006.
* Reuters Alert, February 2006.
* International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), “East Africa and horn of Africa: Food Insecurity Information Bulletin No. 1,” Jan. 16, 2006.
* Wines, Michael. “Zambia’s Plight Goes Begging in Year of Disasters,” New York Times, Feb. 23, 2006.

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