Senate Resolution Call for Expanding the Darfur Arms Embargo

In a clear bipartisan statement denouncing the flow of weapons to Sudan, Senators Bill Nelson and James Inhofe, along with sixteen other co-sponsors, called on countries to cease selling arms to Sudan.

Senate Resolution 660, introduced on Monday, September 16th, calls on arms suppliers—particularly China and Russia—to cease their sales immediately, as “continued sale of arms to Sudan under these circumstances violates the United Nations arms embargo imposed by Security Council Resolutions 1556 and 1591.” The resolution also calls for an expanded UN arms embargo on Sudan.

Human Rights First applauds Senators Nelson, Inhofe, and the other co-sponsors of the resolution for condemning the continuing sales of arms to Sudan. “That such a diverse group of senators came together to decry continued arms transfers to Sudan shows how important the issue of arms is to resolving the conflict in Darfur,” said Betsy Apple, Director of Human Rights First’s Crimes Against Humanity Program. “So long as Darfur is awash in weapons, there will be no peace for the peacekeepers to keep.”

Human Rights First joined these Senators in demanding that all countries immediately cease arms sales to every party to the conflict in Sudan. “Sudan President al-Bashir is under potential indictment for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court,” stated Apple. “No one should be arming a potential war criminal.”

World Food Program Threatens to Halt Aid to Parts of Darfur

On Sunday (September 7th) the World Food Program (WFP) issued a little noticed press release that should have set off alarm bells for diplomats at the UN and advocates alike. The WFP said that banditry has become so severe in Darfur that if things do not get better it will be forced to greatly reduce or end its food distribution in certain parts of the region. Each month the WFP feeds 3 million people in Darfur. You can read the WFP press release at the end of this post.

Banditry in Darfur is out of control. It is not clear in many cases who the bandits are, whether they act alone or are connected with rebel groups in Darfur or the Sudanese government’s proxy militia in the region called “Janajweed”. According to UN sources, more aid workers were killed in the first six months of 2008 in Darfur than the total number killed in all of 2007. Add that grim figure to the scores of aid workers who have been assaulted by bandits as well as aid trucks that have been hijacked and it paints a dire security crisis in the region.

A number of factors have influenced the rise of banditry in Darfur. At the most fundamental level, it is due to the fact that bandits have the means to commit these crimes and they can get away with it. More than three years after the Darfur arms embargo was established by the Security Council the region is awash with weapons. Access to weapons used by bandits points, at least in part, to the failure of the Council to enforce and enhance the arms embargo. Bandits can get away with their actions because the Government of Sudan has not implemented policing and legal mechanisms that hold the perpetrators accountable and UNAMID policing units are not fully deployed in the region.

The easy access to weapons that bandits in Darfur have and the lawlessness they enjoy are both urgent matters that the Security Council must address. Ignoring these issues will allow the conflict in the region to spiral further out of control.

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WFP News Release

7 September 2008

RAMPANT ATTACKS ON RELIEF FOOD CONVOYS PLAGUE OPERATIONS IN DARFUR

KHARTOUM - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that it will have to suspend food distributions in Darfur if the security situation does not improve.

WFP said that relentless attacks on truck convoys in Darfur are pushing to the brink the agency’s ability to feed more than 3 million people each month.

While WFP managed to recover three hijacked trucks and four fleet staff yesterday following the latest attack in South Darfur, 69 trucks and 43 drivers remain unaccounted for. Since the beginning of the year, more than 100 vehicles delivering WFP food assistance have been hijacked in Darfur, with many more shot at and robbed. Drivers are refusing to travel along certain routes, significantly slowing food aid deliveries to hungry people.

“Repeated and targeted attacks on food convoys are making it extraordinarily difficult and dangerous for us to feed hungry people,” said Monika Midel, WFP’s Deputy Representative in Sudan, saying that the agency was deeply concerned that the welfare and lives of personnel were being put at increased risk. “Should these attacks continue, the situation will become intolerable -- to the point that we will have to suspend operations in some areas of Darfur.”

WFP’s warning comes in the wake of the decision on 27 August by NGO partner German Agro Action (GAA) to suspend food distribution to 450,000 people in North Darfur because of insecurity.

Since the beginning of the year, WFP has been warning that banditry and attacks have been impeding its operation. The dramatic decline in security has caused a major reduction in food deliveries to Darfur. WFP started cutting rations in May when truck convoys could no longer deliver enough food, affecting three million people. In July, almost 50,000 people received no food assistance at all due to insecurity.

September is the pre-harvest, ‘hunger gap’ period when the rural population normally runs out of food from last year’s harvest.

“We urge other groups who have seized trucks and drivers to release them, unharmed. At stake are thousands of people in Darfur, who are reliant on the food lifeline the relief truck convoys provide,” said Midel.