n Darfur, South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile the Khartoum regime has escalated bombing attacks, rebranded and legitimized the brutal Janjaweed militias as “Rapid Support Forces” operating throughout Sudan and continued to deny humanitarian aid workers access to many parts of the country, including even banning the Red Cross. While violence against civilians across Sudan has escalated to levels unseen since the height of the Darfur genocide, few Americans are aware of it. For many, the Darfur genocide is something they speak of in the past tense – and their political leaders are following suit. As the media has largely ignored the ongoing devastation in Sudan, neighboring South Sudan continues to face a civil war. Less than three years after gaining independence from South Sudan, a power struggle within the ruling political party recently mutated into an armed conflict, killing thousands and displacing 1.5 million people. Despite an agreement to “end the conflict,” clashes persist and state collapse is still possible. Now many South Sudanese are streaming across the border into Sudan, and the violence is affecting the hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees who had been sheltering there. Pockets of famine and genocidal targeting are threatening both countries and the intensifying conflicts are pulling in neighboring states. These challenges require a much greater U.S. diplomatic effort than present capacities allow. The U.S. cannot positively influence outcomes in Sudan and South Sudan without significantly enhancing its efforts in the areas of accountability and consequences, diplomacy and peacemaking, and aiding and protecting the most vulnerable.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 17:38:40 +0000
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