The US on Monday stepped up its drive to end the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, rushing a top official to crucial peace talks and sharply criticizing delays in bolstering security.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed growing frustration with the continued bloodshed in Darfur where up to 300,000 people have died in three years of fighting between rebels and government-backed militias.
"The international community has got to respond. None of us want to see this situation in Darfur continue and or worsen," she told reporters. "The movement is too slow and we'll press very hard to get it quicker."
Rice spoke after dispatching her deputy, Robert Zoellick, to Abuja, Nigeria, in a bid to help nail down a peace agreement to end what the UN has called one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Zoellick, Washington's point man on Sudan, will "try to assist the African Union (AU) mediation team find solutions to the remaining issues regarding a peace agreement for Darfur," the State Department said.
The AU had given both sides until Sunday midnight to reach an accord in the conflict, which has left 2.4 million people homeless. When the rebels refused to sign, the mediators allowed them another 48 hours.
While the talks hung in the balance, Rice hit out at the failure to make progress on a US-backed initiative to expand a beleaguered 7,000-strong AU peacekeeping contingent in Darfur into a larger UN force.
The Khartoum government, which Washington accuses of genocide in Darfur, has blocked the proposal, and the AU has been slow to follow up a NATO offer of increased logistical help.
"Frankly, we need to shake the trees a little bit, shake the bureaucracy a little bit and say to people: It's not acceptable to wait any longer for at least the planning for a robust security force," Rice said.
"We need to get support for the humanitarian effort. We need to get the effort moving on the planning for the force. And we need an AU response to NATO about what is needed," Rice said.
Zoellick, who has been to Sudan four times, hoped to use his considerable negotiating skills to narrow remaining differences in the Abuja talks, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"Right now, it is down to a few difficult issues, things concerning disarmament of militias, how to integrate former militias into an armed force and associated issues," McCormack said.
The rebels say the AU draft agreement also does not adequately resolve issues of power-sharing and wealth distribution in Sudan's western region.
Khartoum said it was prepared on Sunday to sign the accord and was willing to negotiate. McCormack said Zoellick "decided that this was the right moment to try to get this over the goal line."
Zoellick, accompanied by Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, and Roger Winter, special representative for Sudan, had no fixed time limit for his trip to Abuja, McCormack said.
He described the former top US trade negotiator as "somebody who's results-oriented. I think that he will continue his work out there as long as he thinks it is useful to do so."
McCormack expressed the hope that a peace agreement in Abuja could end the stalemate on the security front as well.
"Obviously, there's interaction among those various things," he said.
"Moving forward on the political front on Abuja will be key to really coming to a more complete and lasting solution to the situation in Darfur," he said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese