Top of the Morning: 300,000 Displaced in Darfur in the Past Year

Top stories from DAWNS Digest

UN: 300,000 Displaced in Darfur in the Past Year

A surge in fighting is causing new misery in the region. “The figure is higher than the combined number of displaced people for the past three years. Violence is down from a peak in 2004-2005 but fighting between the army, rebels and rival tribes has increased significantly since January. “Here in the hot sun in summer they’ve got almost nothing. They still have to walk for water,” U.N. humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos said during a visit to an area outside El Fasher in North Darfur where 18,000 refugees live in tents.” (Reuters http://yhoo.it/16ORGs2)

Fighting Reaches Goma Ahead of Ban Ki Moon Visit to DRC

A mortar landed in Goma, a spillover from several days of heavy fighting–the first such fighting since the Security Council approved a beefed up “intervention brigade” for the fledgling peacekeeping mission. “Wednesday marked the third day of fighting between the rebels and government forces just north of Goma after a nearly six-month lull, officials said. Last November, the M23 rebels, who are allegedly supported and equipped by neighboring Rwanda, seized Goma before retreating from the provincial capital fewer than two weeks later under intense international pressure.” (ABC http://abcn.ws/186mDIE)