Breaking News: Sudan Allowing Aid Groups Back In?

From Reuters:

KHARTOUM, April 16 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John Kerry said after talks with senior Sudanese officials on Thursday Khartoum would allow some foreign aid to be restored in its western Darfur region but that it was not sufficient.

"Time is of the essence to avert a humanitarian catastrophe," said Kerry, who heads the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee and is leading a congressional delegation to Sudan.

The 13 foreign aid agencies --- which together comprised half of Darfur's entire aid operation --- were given the boot after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity on March 4. Despite dire predictions of the breakdown in basic services (food, water, basic health care) potentially affecting millions of Darfuris, GoS and its allies remained resolute in the decision not to let them back in.

So what does it mean?

It means many things, aside from the hopeful aversion of an even greater humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur, most of which are unknown at the moment. Kerry's statement didn't give much in the way of details, so ultimately it means that we have more questions that answers. As John Norris wrote on the ENOUGH blog, "Of course, as with all things related to the government of Sudan, we will believe it when we see it."

But if a viable agreement does come through:

It will mean that we will have to carefully watch Khartoum to make sure it abides by the agreement.

It will mean that the U.S. does have influence in Sudan, despite the fact that his regional allies rallied around him with breathtaking vigor. Granted, this is only one step in the direction towards peace and stability for the country, but it seems to me like a pretty big one, especially if no concessions are made on the ICC arrest warrants.

It will mean that no situation is entirely intractable, or entirely hopeless --- it will mean that there are cards to be played at the negotiation table, and even Bashir's government of thugs in Khartoum are not beyond reason.

Finally, it will mean that what we do matters. No one should be arrogant enough to claim credit for this (except for, you know, the Obama Administration), but it is not unreasonable to say that Obama's focus on Sudan, and Gration's appointment,  and Kerry's trip, are in large part due to the consistent pressure exerted by the activist community. In fact, he said so himself. Speaking at a meeting of the movement's top advocates the night before Gration left for his trip to Sudan, Obama said:

"This is going to be a very difficult task.  It will be a time-consuming task.  We don't expect any solutions overnight to the longstanding problems there.  Fortunately, what's happened in Darfur has touched so many people around the world, and we have seen such an extraordinary mobilization of advocates, many of who are sitting at this table -- we've got bipartisan interest on the part of members of Congress around this issue -- that I actually think that America can speak effectively with one voice and bring the moral and other elements of our stature to bear in trying to deal with this situation."

But...at this point, it remains impossible to tell if it will amount to anything at all. Fingers crossed.

[Photo from Flickr, under the Creative Commons license.]