Heart felt thanks to the visionary team at the Independent on Sunday for being the only Western media to run with this story. More details are published in today’s paper.
In April, the UN/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) came under scrutiny amid allegations that it was covering up crimes by Sudanese government forces against civilians.
In a leaked report published by US Magazine, Foreign Policy, a former UNAMID spokesperson, Aicha El-Basri, gave accounts of several transgressions wherein the joint mission failed in its primary mandate, which is to protect civilians and humanitarians. As a result of these allegations, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon instigated an internal investigation. On Wednesday I was informed by a contact on the ground that UNAMID’s head, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, had stepped down (there was no official UN announcement making the story hard to corroborate initially), just weeks before the report’s findings are due to be published.
Darfuri civilians, I’m told, are indifferent to Chambas’ departure. Two weeks ago he was reported as saying “UNAMID cannot stop government forces [from] enter [ing] the camps for the displaced”, despite having the resources and mandate to do just that. Whilst Chambas certainly won’t be missed, Darfuris have given up any hope or expectation that UNAMID will ever fulfil its mandate towards them.
The mission was deployed to Darfur in 2008. It costs an estimated 1.4 billion dollars annually, making it the worlds most expensive and arguably least effective, peacekeeping force. So sullied is the reputation of UNAMID amongst Darfuris (approximately 2 million people have been newly displaced since its arrival, most by violence) that many believe they are working for the Sudanese government. The history of incompetence dates back to its inception and has been a constant throughout.
In August, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, described UNAMID as being largely ineffectual in protecting civilians from violence. The report warned of an escalation of government led attacks on civilians in the region making accurate and timely reporting more crucial than ever. HRW berates the mission for its failure to report detailed findings, including civilian death tolls, estimates of property destruction, and alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. In fact, the mission has not reported on human rights issues, including the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war, since 2009.
Last week New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof, leaked data from a UNICEF document. In it he states that, 45% of children in central Darfur, 40% in East Darfur and 35% in West and North Darfur suffer from chronic malnutrition. This condition commonly leads to "stunting", which is a retarding of children's growth and development, amongst other things. The UN cannot be allowed to prevent the gathering and publication of damning data such as this in an apparent bid to obfuscate genocidal activity and its failure to stop it.
UNAMID was arguably doomed to fail. It is based on a false premise, one that assumes there is a peace to keep. Peace not only eludes Darfuris, its utterance taunts them. The people in camps, lying doubled up from starvation induced abdominal spasms, know that there are no deals to be made with the devil. Al Bashir has signed several, so called peace deals, but honoured none. Peace cannot be brokered as long as the UN allows Sudanese forces to drop bombs on civilians.
At what point and at what human cost will the UN stop the crippling charade of appeasement and complicity? If Ban Ki-moon is serious about his pledge to put ‘Rights up Front’ in the UN’s work, why is Darfur always languishing at the back of the queue?
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