U.S. and European Media

September 27, 2023

Agence France Presse: US Darfur envoy begins Sudan visit. US Sudan envoy Andrew Natsios on Thursday began a 10-day visit to Sudan, focused on the war-torn western region of Darfur and a fragile peace deal in the south of the country. Natsios, who arrived late Wednesday, will meet officials in Khartoum to discuss the conflict in Darfur, where the US says genocide is taking place, ahead of peace talks slated for October 27 in Tripoli, the official Suna news agency reported on Thursday. The US envoy will also travel to Darfur, where more than four years of fighting and famine have left at least 200,000 people dead and two million displaced, although Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died. Natsios will also visit south Sudan where a 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of civil war with the north is threatening to unravel, in particular over the sharing of oil revenue from the central Abiye region.

Reuters: Aid agency reduces Darfur operations after attacks. Relief agency World Vision has scaled back its operations in South Darfur after its staff suffered three attacks within a week, an agency official said on Thursday. "World Vision has not suspended operations -- we have scaled down," Michael Arunga, communications manager for World Vision, told Reuters. "There have been three attacks in one week ... involving our staff." The Christian agency has asked all non-essential staff in the south of the remote western Sudanese region to go on leave, with 77 of 308 Sudanese employees remaining and about half of its 20 international staff. Last week, a World Vision car was stolen by armed men in the northern part of the state. Later, three staff were shot and wounded, and their car was stolen. In the latest incident, a driver was robbed at gunpoint of his vehicle just outside South Darfur's capital, Nyala. He was held for several hours, beaten and made to walk back to town. "If we are to pull out, that is going to be disastrous," he told Reuters by telephone from South Darfur. He said half a million people benefited from World Vision's activities in Darfur. Arunga said World Vision was continuing food distributions, as well as running health clinics and schools for children whose education had been disrupted by the conflict.

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