As a UN deadline for action nears, the Sudanese government has not reined in Arab militias accused of killing villagers in the Darfur region, diplomats said a UN official told the Security Council.
Assistant Secretary-General Tuliameni Kalomoh told council members at a closed-door meeting Tuesday that the UN continues to receive reports of attacks by the militiamen as well as of looting and harassment by men in uniform.
But Kalomoh told the council that humanitarian aid access has improved and there was cooperation in identifying safe havens for the hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees, said diplomats who were at the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity.
According to council diplomats, Kalomoh also said that the Sudanese military was still blocking humanitarian flights and Sudanese authorities were exerting excessive pressure to get those who fled to return to their villages.
Kalomoh's briefing took place ahead of the Aug. 30 deadline the council set in a resolution adopted a month ago calling for the government to take action to improve security and humanitarian access.
UN officials say Darfur has become the world's worst humanitarian crisis since African rebels rose against the government in February 2003 to protest its pro-Arab bias. The government has been accused of trying to crush the revolt by backing a scorched-earth policy it denies, although last week it acknowledged it has "control" over some militia.
Khartoum has promised to give the United Nations a list of militants suspected of involvement in the bloodshed, but Kalomoh told the council it has not yet received any names, the diplomats said.
The resolution threatened punitive economic and diplomatic mea-sures if Khartoum didn't move quickly. But Britain's Foreign Office said on Friday that a majority of Security Council members oppose immediate heavy sanctions if Sudan fails to quell the violence, which has killed up to 30,000 and forced more than 1 million to flee their homes.
A statement by the council af-ter Tuesday's meeting made no mention of any punitive measures. Instead, the council voiced "strong support" to the African Union's efforts to tackle the crisis and urged Sudan and rebel leaders meeting in Nigeria to reach a political settlement and end the violence.
The African Union already has 80 observers in Darfur, protected by 150 Rwandan troops, to monitor a rarely observed cease-fire between black African rebels and government-backed Arab militias. But an AU plan to send nearly 2,000 peacekeepers to monitor the region, which is the size of France and has 147 known refugee camps, was rejected on Monday by Sudan.
US deputy ambassador Stuart Holliday said Washington hasn't ruled out sanctions, but he focused on proposals to beef up the African monitoring and protection force.
"People are still dying and they're still scared in Darfur, and I think the important thing is to address the protection and security issues that remain," he said.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to send a written report to the council by Aug. 30 on Sudan's implementation of the Darfur Plan of Action, which spelled out specific steps Sudan needed to take. His special representative to Sudan, Jan Pronk, is expected to brief the council on Sept. 2.
Russian UN Ambassador Andrey Denisov, the current council president, said members were waiting for Pronk's report before making a determination.
Asked for Russia's assessment of Khartoum's progress, he said "still there is a long way to go to implement the resolution ... and to prevent humanitarian suffering."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number