Darfur: More attacks on villages

As the Sudanese government's genocidal campaign in Darfur entered its fifth year, a continuous series of aerial bombardments has been terrorizing civilians in northern Darfur for the past two weeks.

On April 29th, leaders of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), one of the main rebel groups in Darfur, said at least 12 bombs had fallen in the last week under areas of their control, leading to civilian casualties. The rebels alleged that bombings had been continuing for about a week. Despite the Sudanese government denying these charges per usual, a UN statement confirmed these statements saying that "repeated aerial attacks" have indeed been occurring.

After these reports, to the dismay of many, rebels and local organizations announced a few days later that bombings continued to specifically target civilians once again. According to JEM's London-based spokesman: "they killed 11 civilians and injured three women and two children when they bombed the market in Shugag Karo, near Deir Maza, on market day. There were a lot of people concentrated in one place....there was not any single armed element from the (rebel) movements in the area." (emphasis added). Local NGOs have said: "according to information gathered by the villagers of Shegeg Karo, the Antonov hovered for a long time and then bombed repeatedly." Some sources say that 35 children have been wounded from the bombing of the school. Top humanitarian officials are urgently seeking access to the victims.

The UN peacekeeping force failed to prevent these atrocities from occurring. Understandable, considering the majority of the force has not even deployed yet, months after its authorization. UNAMID officials excitedly say the first steps of deployment will finally be taken with a mere two battalions arriving in June and hope that 80% of the force will be deployed by the end of the year.

After all the energy (at least three major international peace conferences), effort (tedious debates over the deployment of UN peacekeepers), and fundraising (multiple large donor conferences) that has been poured into resolving this crisis from all over the world, can the international community really bear to see these grim circumstances as the current state of affairs? Lately, activists and policymakers have been celebrating every inch of progress as a huge accomplishment, overcoming the barriers of Sudanese obstruction. But does this "progress" at a snail's pace really merit its praise?

It's time to become practical and realistic in addressing this conflict that the Sudanese government has been masterfully manipulating. Two battalions in June will largely mean nothing. 80% of the peacekeeping force by the end of the year is not enough and is far too late. We dragged Somalia on in the 1990s, abandoned it as a lost cause, and look where it is now. Fortunately, Darfur is not a lost cause yet, primarily because ordinary citizens around the world continue to proactively express how they still care. Subsequently, it is about time that the policymakers that have the influence to create real progress start becoming proactive as well.