U.S. and European Media

October 3, 2023

Reuters: Sudan Pledges $300 Million to Darfur. Sudan's president has promised to pay $300 million in compensation to the country's war-torn Darfur region, tripling a previous pledge, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Wednesday. Carter spoke during a tour of Darfur marred by a heated exchange between the 83-year-old former president and Sudanese security, who tried to prevent him from visiting a tribal leader. Carter told Reuters President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan had made the compensation pledge during talks with him and other members of a visiting group of elder statesmen, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in Khartoum on Monday. "He promised us there would be $300 million in all coming to the Darfur region in compensation, $100 million coming from the government, and $200 million to be a loan from the Chinese."

Associated Press: Darfur Peacekeeper Fears for UN Force. The Nigerian commander of African Union troops said he feared for the future of a new peacekeeping force, but assured former President Carter and other statesmen on Tuesday that the deaths of 10 comrades would not weaken his country's commitment to Darfur. Gen. Martin Agwai told the group the proposed force of AU and U.N. troops still lacked equipment, and even by January would have less than a third of the troops promised. "Our president called me and assured me he understood our plan and would continue to support us," Agwai said. Nigerian's commitment is crucial because under the compromise reached between the United Nations and Khartoum's government, the majority of the new 26,000-strong joint force must be predominantly African. Along with the joint force's chief, Rodolphe Adada, the Nigerian general said the mission still lacked crucial equipment.

Agence France-Presse: Security Council condemns attack on African troops in Darfur. The UN Security Council on Tuesday condemned the weekend attack that killed 10 African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region and warned that any attempt to undermine the peace process is "unacceptable." After two days of debate, Ghana's UN Ambassador to the UN Leslie Christian, the council chair this month, read out a statement condemning an attack "reportedly committed by a rebel group" and demanded that "no effort be spared so that the perpetrators be identified and brought to justice." The council met in emergency session Monday to discuss the case but could not agree on a formal statement of condemnation as some members sought clarification about exactly who was responsible for Saturday's bloody attack. Sudan's UN ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad welcomed the council's condemnation and said there was no doubt that a breakaway rebel group was involved. "You have to isolate those groups and give them a lesson," he said. "The international community cannot condone any spoiling of the peace process."

Houston Chronicle: McGrady on Africa: 'I knew I had to go'. There was so much Tracy McGrady did not know. Not then, not in the beginning. The Houston Rockets star had seen the news reports about the atrocities in the Darfur region of western Sudan, where a genocide has left hundreds of thousands of people dead and millions more homeless and living in bleak desert camps. He had begun to educate himself with conversations with experts. But he did not really understand what genocide means, how horrific the tragedy was in Africa's largest nation. Where his journey began, almost as much as where it would lead, is part of his story. But even then, he knew he needed to see it all, the horror and sadness, for himself. "I still don't know why," McGrady said, "but I knew I had to go." The more he learned, the more he knew that to make it a part of him, to let it change him, he had to go to the refugee camps and see it for himself. So McGrady went to Chad to live among Darfur's displaced people, to hear their stories, to hold their babies and to vow to return to his world to be their voice. He needed to see the orphans, barely able to walk, wandering through the camps, unattended, alone. He needed to sleep in tents overrun by maggots and frogs and rats. He needed to wake up in the middle of the night and feel the tears dampen his face. He needed to live it. "Now that I've gone over there and experienced it, I know," McGrady said.

New York Times: An Airlift of Private Planes to Darfur, Not the Hamptons. When Wall Street banks charter planes, it is usually so their executives can hopscotch in style to meetings with clients. But a group of investment banks and a hedge fund have a different purpose in mind: delivering antibiotics and other medical supplies to refugees in war-ravaged Darfur. Called the Darfur Project, it will pay for eight private airlifts over the next six months to the western region of Sudan, where at least 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been made homeless. By working with the Bridge Foundation, a small nongovernment group that has expertise in providing humanitarian relief, the project hopes to raise more awareness of the crisis while also offering help to the refugees. What distinguishes the organization from other nongovernment partnerships is its backers: BlueMountain Capital Management, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and PNC Financial. The banks have pledged $2 million to cover the flights and plan to use their reputations and organizational skills to encourage other banks and hedge funds to join.

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