U.S. and European media

October 14, 2023

New York Times: Sudan Arrests Militia Chief Facing Trial. The Sudanese government has arrested one of the most wanted men in the country, a notorious janjaweed militia leader charged by an international court with orchestrating mass murder in Darfur, Sudanese officials disclosed on Monday. The move is widely being interpreted as a way for Sudan to improve its image abroad and try to head off the possible genocide prosecution of the country's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, in the International Criminal Court.

Associated Press: Sudan to conduct its own Darfur trials. Sudan will conduct its own trials for suspects implicated in crimes in the war torn Darfur region, the country's Justice Minister said Monday, without specifying when they might take place. Abdel Basset Sabdarat told reporters during a visit to Cairo a special prosecutor is nearly finished with a number of reports on unspecified crimes committed in Darfur where rebels are battling government forces and civilians are caught in the crossfire.

Reuters: Rebels say 11 killed in Darfur militia ambush. Armed militias ambushed a band of rebel fighters in south Darfur, sparking a gun battle that left at least 11 dead, insurgents said on Sunday. The reports of fresh fighting in Darfur came at a sensitive time for Khartoum which has been stepping up diplomatic efforts to block a move by the International Criminal Court to indict Sudan's president for war crimes in the country's violent west. Leaders from two rebel factions said the militias who struck late on Saturday were part of a build-up of fighters around the town of Muhajiriya, a past flashpoint in the Darfur conflict.

Washington Post: Darfur Killings Soften Bush's Opposition to International Court. As his administration draws to a close, President Bush appears to be backing down from his long-held and fierce opposition to the International Criminal Court, an institution the president and his top advisers have rejected as a possible forum for frivolous cases against U.S. military and civilian officials. The shift is related to what may be an even greater imperative for Bush: bringing to justice the perpetrators of what the president has labeled "genocide" in Darfur. Few issues have symbolized the perceived unilateralism of the Bush administration more than the president's hostility toward the ICC. But as the court weighs a formal arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes, the administration is emerging as an unlikely defender of the court in the face of efforts by Sudan and others to derail the prosecution.

Reuters: Darfur officials return to work after attack protest. Eighteen Sudanese officials who withdrew from posts in Darfur in protest at a violent government raid said on Tuesday they had returned to work to campaign for peace in the region. The officials from former southern rebels the Sudan People's Liberation Movement walked out last month after a raid by government forces on Kalma camp for displaced people in south Darfur left 30 people dead.

Reuters: Sudan summons Kenyan, Ethiopian envoys over arms. Sudan summoned the Kenyan and Ethiopian ambassadors on Monday to protest against what it said were illegal shipments of arms to its semi-autonomous south, state media reported. Khartoum was protesting over "violations" linked to an arms shipment seized by pirates off Somalia's coast that Western diplomats said was bound for south Sudan, and a plane-load of weapons from Addis Ababa, state news agency SUNA reported.

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