New Trouble for Darfur

Things are poised to go from worse, to very worse. From the UN News Center:

The Darfur conflict could lapse soon into another major cycle of violence and large-scale human displacement unless the parties retreat from their recent state of confrontation, the top United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security Council today.

Briefing Council members on the work of UNAMID, the hybrid UN-African Union mission in Darfur, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno said there has been “a deeply disturbing” recent deterioration in the security situation.

Last weekend’s attack by rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) members on Government forces on the outskirts of the capital, Khartoum, illustrated that the conflict — which has raged on and off since 2003 — had the potential to move beyond the borders of the Darfur region, which lies on Sudan’s western flank.

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