Abductions of Sudanese Refugee Children in Chad
Waging Peace, a British NGO, issued a report stating that between 7,000 and 10,000 Darfurian children abducted from refugee camps in Chad are serving as child soldiers. Please also see my other posts on Child Soldiers. The report comes right after the earlier report this month on the Release of Child Soldiers in Chad. Please also see my other posts such as, Despite Increased Aid Efforts We Are Still Failing the Children of Darfur
In other news on the situation Darfur international negotiators have called the prospects for new peace negotiations about Darfur “dim.” In an effort to revive the peace process, the UN and AU are working to appoint a joint mediator, which would replace the current negotiators. All of this comes right as the Sudanese government stated its readiness for a ceasefire and peace negotiations, so long as JEM is banned from participating. The JEM and SLM movements currently reject the idea of peace talks, while the SLM-Unity movement stated its intention to launch attacks on Khartoum. Additionally the civil war between the Northern and Southern regions of Sudan was nearly reignited due to a boundary dispute in the Abyei region. The dispute has left many of the residents of Abyei displaced and the town nearly destroyed.
It is painfully clear that the situations in both Sudan and Chad will not come to a clear peaceful resolution soon, and that the children will continue to be swept up in the ciaos until a true peace can be found and stability finds its way to the region.
June 21st, 2008 at 3:41 pm
The Sudanese government should immediately account for the hundreds of men, women, and children arrested in Khartoum since a rebel attack on the capital in May 2008, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report June 17. The government should also bring to justice those responsible for the torture and mistreatment of detainees. The 28-page report, “Crackdown in Khartoum: Mass Arrests, Torture, and Disappearances Since the May 10 Attack,” documents Sudanese government repression in Khartoum following the attack by the Darfur-based rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Eyewitnesses suggest that more than 60 civilians were killed during the fighting.