U.S. and European media

December 1, 2022

New York Times: Choice for U.N. Backs Strong Action Against Mass Killings. President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his foreign policy adviser, Susan E. Rice, to be ambassador to the United Nations, picking an advocate of "dramatic action" against genocide as he rounds out his national security team, Democrats close to the transition said Sunday. It will also send to the world organization a prominent and forceful advocate of stronger action, including military force if necessary, to stop mass killings like those in the Darfur region of Sudan in recent years. Jerry Fowler, president of the Save Darfur Coalition, praised the pending Rice nomination on Sunday, calling it a powerful sign of the new president's interest in the issue. The coalition is urging Mr. Obama to begin a "peace surge" of sustained diplomacy to address the continuing problems in Sudan. "It sends a very strong signal about his approach to the issue of Sudan and Africa in general," Mr. Fowler said.

Associated Press: UN criticizes Darfur aid worker attacks. The U.N. humanitarian chief on Sunday criticized attacks on aid workers in Darfur and called on both the Sudanese government and rebel groups to do their part to stop them. "It is unacceptable that we have double the attacks on aid workers than we had this time last year," John Holmes said in a statement at the end of a six-day visit to Sudan. Eleven aid workers have been killed in Darfur this year and 189 have been abducted, according to the United Nations. Holmes said the Sudanese government has a responsibility to protect humanitarian workers in the country's western region. But he said Darfur rebels appear to be responsible for most of the attacks.

Agence France-Presse: Darfur getting more dangerous: UN humanitarian chief. Sudan's war-torn Darfur is becoming ever more dangerous, warned the UN's top humanitarian official on Sunday, calling for rapid progress towards a political settlement after a government ceasefire. "The longer this conflict goes on, the more dangerous it becomes in terms of the ability to return to normality as it was before," John Holmes, UN emergency relief coordinator, told a news conference after a six-day visit to Sudan. "The situation has not changed fundamentally in five years, except for its gradual deterioration in camps, still there five years later," said Holmes.

Associated Press: Flashpoint Sudan town tense months after battle. The dirt roads are still lined with burned huts, and many of the scattered residents say they are too frightened to return and rebuild, half a year after north and south Sudanese forces battled over this small town, claimed by both sides in an oil-rich flashpoint region. With Abyei still largely deserted and its fate in limbo, the dispute over the area remains a potential time bomb that could wreck the fragile 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of civil war between Sudan's Arab-led Khartoum government in the north and mainly ethnic African rebels in the south.

Reuters: Sudan politicians claim stake in Obama heritage. Sudanese politicians claimed Barack Obama as one of their own on Saturday as they belatedly celebrated his election as U.S. president, hailing his family roots in their country. Much has been made of Obama's father's origins in Kenya. But he acknowledged his distant Sudanese roots in his autobiography 'Dreams From My Father'. "His father came from the Luo (tribe), who are from the Nile. The Luo originally moved from Sudan to Kenya," said Yasir Arman, a senior member of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, former southern rebels who are now in a coalition government with the north. "It is giving a message to our society that Sudan can do the same, that Sudan can recognize its own diversity," he said.

The Darfur Daily News is a service of the Save Darfur Coalition. To subscribe to the Daily News, please email [email protected]. For media inquiries, please contact Ashley Roberts at (202) 478-6181, or [email protected].