Daily Darfur: Bated Breath Over Chad/Sudan Tension

Fouad Hikmat, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, told Voice of America that he finds it unlikely that rising tensions between Chad and Sudan will escalate much further, noting that, after the ICC indictment for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity, "the Sudanese government doesn't want the issue of Darfur and this to be more internationalized."

"The new part of it which is very significant is that the Chadians this time pursued the rebels inside the Sudanese territory and with air raids and with troops. And they are very clear about it and are open about it," he said.

Fingers crossed that he's right, but I wonder just how long Khartoum will tolerate incursion into their territory before they get fed up and retaliate. Rodolphe Adada, the African Union-United Nations Joint Special Representative in Darfur, issued a statement yesterday expressing his concern over recent developments along the border, noting that "the poor state of relations between Chad and Sudan constitutes one of the biggest threats to efforts to secure lasting peace for the people of Darfur."

Hunger Strikes Abound

Members of the Congressional Black Congress joined Mia Farrow and many others in the Fast for Darfur. Chairwoman Barabara Lee commented:

"Almost 15 years ago in Rwanda, the international community turned a blind eye while a million civilians were hacked to death," Lee says. "Can we really say we have done any different in the case of Darfur, South Sudan, Abyei and Nuba? We declared genocide in 2004, but we failed to act decisively to stop it. If we had acted then, we could have saved many innocent people. If we do the right thing now, we can save children from a certain death and end the suffering for millions."

Meanwhile, an unrelated/coincidental hunger strike is underway in a Sudanese jail, where members of the main opposition party are protesting 10 months in detention without being charged.

Quickies

Nick Kristof writes that the phenomenon of mass rape persists even after brutal wars have ended.

Another nine Darfur rebels were sentenced to death by a court in Khartoum, bringing the total condemned for a raid near the capital last year to 91.

[Photo from AFP: Supporters of Chadian President Idriss Deby march in Ndjamena. Deby led around 10,000 anti-Sudanese demonstrators through the capital Ndjamena on earlier this month, to protest what he said was Khartoum's support for a recent rebel offensive.]