Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Khartoum (Fides Service)- There has been another break down in negotiations for peace in Darfur: the last session is today 21 December in Abuja, capital of Nigeria. African Union mediator, Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo is meeting with representatives of the rebels movements and the Sudanese government to officially close this cycle of talks.
Negotiations were interrupted after the two main rebel group Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rejected mediation proposed by Libya affirming that they had presented their position to the African Union mediators: immediate withdrawal of government troops from the territory occupied in the latest offensive. The government of Khartoum rejected a African Union ultimatum of 24 hours to withdraw its troops. In the meantime the US state department has voiced “serious concern” for increasing violence in Darfur calling on the government of Sudan and the rebels to respect the cease fire agreement violated by both sides.
The break down in the peace talks is bound to heighten the humanitarian crisis. Caritas Internationalis which has workers in Darfur shared with Fides a dramatic testimony with regard to the situation of people in this area. “Perhaps the enormity of what has been happening for the past 18 months is seen only from the window of a plane or helicopter carrying aid personnel” the testimony says. “Only from above you can see that towns like Nyala, in south Darfur, and Zalingei and Garsilla in west Darfur, have changed completely: their borders have swollen to include thousands of tents and clusters of camps. Only from above can the entity of destruction inflicted on little villages be fully grasped: few villages have been spared” the Caritas Internationalis worker affirmed.
Once there the situation is “schizophrenic”: “in Darfur war can flare up with inexorable immediacy in areas only a few minutes from towns which appear to be calm. In Darfur the threat of violence prevents people from leaving refugee camps only just over the hill from the fields they tilled and where they bought up their children and buried their dead ”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 21/12/2004 righe 39 parole 449)
