African Union Troops Overrun in Darfur

[Sea Skimmer]

Darfur attack kills peacekeepers

The African Union mission has been in Darfur since 2003
A troubled mission

An attack on an African Union army base in the Sudanese region of Darfur has killed at least 10 peacekeepers.

Thirty vehicles overran the base, and 50 AU soldiers were missing and seven seriously injured. Vehicles and property were looted or vandalised.

Rebel sources told the BBC that the raiders were members of breakaway factions from two rebel groups.

The attack came as S African Archbishop Desmond Tutu arrived in Sudan bringing a new peace initiative for Darfur.

The casualties were the most serious suffered by the AU mission since it arrived in 2003, an AU statement said.

AU-UN Joint Special Representative Rodolphe Adada said he was profoundly shocked and appalled by the "outrageous and deliberate" attack, which happened on Saturday evening at a base in Haskanita town.

BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the fighting comes at a particularly unfortunate moment, with discussions about to take place between the AU and UN to pave the way for peace talks between government and rebels.

Prospects of an agreement at the talks are starting to look bleak, he says.

'Unconscionable crime'

A spokesman for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) condemned the attack, saying it was carried out by three dissident commanders from his own movement, in conjunction with one of the groups that broke from the Sudan Liberation Army.

"It's a group which has been expelled," Ibrahim Jalil said.

"They're looking for equipment - vehicles and weapons. They couldn't get these within JEM, and they don't have the capability to fight government forces. They found the AU an easy target."

Sources told the BBC that the attackers made off with all the weapons and vehicles they were able to take, and burned the vehicles that remained.

The AU statement described the attackers as "a large and organised group of heavily armed men", but did not say whether they were rebels or government troops.

"It is staggering to imagine what could possibly have been the intentions of those who perpetrated this wanton and unprovoked act," Mr Adada said.

"Not only was it a flagrant violation of the ceasefire but an unconscionable crime that breaks every convention and norm of international peacekeeping."

Mission to Sudan

About 7,000 African Union troops are deployed in Darfur on a limited mandate.

The UN Security Council has approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force to expand the current AU force, which has been struggling to protect civilians.

On Sunday Archbishop Tutu arrived in Khartoum - in the latest initiative to bring peace to Darfur.

The archbishop is leading a delegation of "elders" that includes former UN envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi, US ex-President Jimmy Carter, and Graca Machel, a children's rights advocate and the wife of Nelson Mandela.

The group came together at Mr Mandela's invitation to find ways to tackle some of the world's toughest problems, such as HIV/Aids, poverty and conflict.

Commenting on the attack on the AU, Mr Tutu said: "It just shows how desperate the situation is, how desperately we've got to find a peaceful solution so that incidents of that kind don't happen."

The BBC's Amber Henshaw in Khartoum says it is no coincidence that Darfur is the focus of the group's first mission.

At least 200,000 people have died and some 2m have been forced from their homes during the four-year conflict.

The delegation will meet President Omar al-Bashir and others in Khartoum before travelling to Juba, capital of southern Sudan.

They will then travel to Darfur where they will meet community leaders and displaced people living in camps.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/a ... 020596.stm

Published: 2007/09/30 20:19:48 GMT

© BBC MMVII

Course, it should have been obvious that peacekeepers don’t work in a situation when no peace exists to keep.

[weemadando]

I think that this, shows that Sudan in fact does need serious intervention. As many people have been advocating for quite a while.

There are still dozens of peacekeepers missing at this time. And the raid apparently was a rush to steal weapons, consisting of 30+ vehicles.

[Sea Skimmer]

The number of missing is now being given as 30, a slight improvement, but this still means a platoon strength unit was simply scattered by an attack. But it would seem that like the rest of the world, no one around here really cares about this place.

[salm]

If i understand the situation correctly then China has pretty good contracts with the current Sudanese leadership concerning oil and other recources.
The west on the other hand would therefore rather see a Dafur that is devided from Sudan in order to be able to get a hold of these recources.
This conflict of interestst of two big dogs is what makes an intervention practically impossible.

[Ryan Thunder]

The number of missing is now being given as 30, a slight improvement, but this still means a platoon strength unit was simply scattered by an attack. But it would seem that like the rest of the world, no one around here really cares about this place.

I do. The Americans would have done better to help there than mire themselves in this ridiculous Iraqi insurgency...

[Beowulf]

The number of missing is now being given as 30, a slight improvement, but this still means a platoon strength unit was simply scattered by an attack. But it would seem that like the rest of the world, no one around here really cares about this place.

I do. The Americans would have done better to help there than mire themselves in this ridiculous Iraqi insurgency...

Ah, so you'd like us to get mired in a different civil war. One with no clear strategic objectives, nor any strategic interests. Brilliant.

[Pelranius]

I wonder if this would persuade Beijing to attach a regiment or two of airmobile troops to their engineers. If it were an ideal world.

[Ryan Thunder]

The number of missing is now being given as 30, a slight improvement, but this still means a platoon strength unit was simply scattered by an attack. But it would seem that like the rest of the world, no one around here really cares about this place.

I do. The Americans would have done better to help there than mire themselves in this ridiculous Iraqi insurgency...

Ah, so you'd like us to get mired in a different civil war. One with no clear strategic objectives, nor any strategic interests. Brilliant.

Right, so we should do something, we just shouldn't do anything.

[Sidewinder]

I think that this, shows that Sudan in fact does need serious intervention. As many people have been advocating for quite a while.

Who has the will and the ability to intervene? Certainly not the US, which is still bogged down in Iraq. I doubt the European Union would be willing to risk the casualties they'd undoubtedly receive intervening in Darfur. Russia, China, and India lack the transports to send enough people to make a difference in Darfur. And we just saw what happened to the African Union troops.

[Guardsman Bass]

The number of missing is now being given as 30, a slight improvement, but this still means a platoon strength unit was simply scattered by an attack. But it would seem that like the rest of the world, no one around here really cares about this place.

I do. The Americans would have done better to help there than mire themselves in this ridiculous Iraqi insurgency...

Ah, so you'd like us to get mired in a different civil war. One with no clear strategic objectives, nor any strategic interests. Brilliant.

I don't think he was talking about regime change a la Iraq; rather, something like the 20,000 odd marines in Somalia before the Ranger Mogadishu debacle in 1993. A peacekeeping mission.

[Ender]

The number of missing is now being given as 30, a slight improvement, but this still means a platoon strength unit was simply scattered by an attack. But it would seem that like the rest of the world, no one around here really cares about this place.

I do. The Americans would have done better to help there than mire themselves in this ridiculous Iraqi insurgency...

Ah, so you'd like us to get mired in a different civil war. One with no clear strategic objectives, nor any strategic interests. Brilliant.

"Stop the purges" is a pretty fucking explicit objective and rebuilding international trust and goodwill are definitely in our strategic interests.

But hey, they are just people. What the fuck do they matter?

[Sea Skimmer]

Current world military strength, if you could active duty troops, reserve troops and trained troops incorporated in a mobilization system comes to better then 30 million men, of which about 2.4 million are American. If you look at only active duty troops, it still comes to around 8 million of which about 1.4 million are American.

Clearly, even if American forces where completely unavailable, a massive presence could still be assembled if anyone cared to do so. Only American ground troops are totally maxed out though, support could be provided in other ways. But no ones going to do it.

[ray245]

What about the French foreign legion?

[DrMckay]

Even thought the French won't get involved in another foreign conflict with Muslims; (Algiers and recent riots, anyone?)

it is a good idea. The FL is fairly mobile. Also, don't they have armor of their own? Should come in handy in country.

Does anyone know stuff like that about the Legion. It'd be cool to know, especially about their armor.

Tanks a lot.

[ray245]

Even thought the French won't get involved in another foreign conflict with Muslims; (Algiers and recent riots, anyone?)

it is a good idea. The FL is fairly mobile. Also, don't they have armor of their own? Should come in handy in country.

Does anyone know stuff like that about the Legion. It'd be cool to know, especially about their armor.

Tanks a lot.

I would say the french foreign legion is a good choice because, people would not be TOO concerned with troops being killed.

Come to think of it, FFL is a better choice as peacekeepers than the UN.

[salm]

The number of missing is now being given as 30, a slight improvement, but this still means a platoon strength unit was simply scattered by an attack. But it would seem that like the rest of the world, no one around here really cares about this place.

I do. The Americans would have done better to help there than mire themselves in this ridiculous Iraqi insurgency...

Ah, so you'd like us to get mired in a different civil war. One with no clear strategic objectives, nor any strategic interests. Brilliant.

There are strategic objectives. Sudan is rich in oil and borders the Kongo which is rich in oil, coltan and a whole lot of other recources of major interest for the west. Furthermore Sudan borders Ruanda and Uganda who are the ones plundering Kongos natural recources.

But like others have said a regime change is probably not reasonable. A peacekeeping mission would be preferable. One with real soldiers, not a bunch of third world soldiers.

[Axis Kast]

There is no peace to keep, in Darfur.

Any military unit that deploys would have to secure the ground against not only Janajaweed and Sudanese military forces (the former not actually being dependent on the latter in terms of capacity to keep the field), but also a number of rebel groups that lack any visible constituencies but could be expected to fight for the reigns of "post-conflict" power, as well as criminal outfits that profit from marauding.

Really, the need is for a follow-on force that commits to nation-building with a scheme of transitional government. A new Kosovo, if you will.

Whether this could actually be done given current political will... I doubt it strongly.

The fact of the matter is that Darfur has little we want. Oil futures, surely, but those are already in the hands of investors. And there's no telling how long it'll take to restore stability and the secondary economy needed to support large-scale oil pumping.