Madagascar: U.S Ends Restrictions On Aid

The United States has lifted all remaining restrictions on direct assistance to Madagascar.

The U.S. State Department says the move was made in light of the country's successful 2013 elections and installation of a new government earlier this year.

The elections ended four years of political turmoil that followed a 2009 coup. The African Union refused to recognize the new leader Andry Rajoelina, and the United States and other donors cut aid to the island nation, hurting its economy.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday that the U.S. has invited the new president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, to the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington this August.

Psaki said the U.S. provided $55 million to Madagascar in fiscal 2013 for food security and health programs.

Africa: Legendary American Author, Poet Maya Angelou Dies

Cape Town — Maya Angelou, a prize-winning American literary figure with strong African ties, has died, according to news reports. Angelou had written a poem on behalf of the American people to the South African nation after the death of the country's former president Nelson Mandela in December 2013.

She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years, according toWikipedia.

Angelou died at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, her literary agent Helen Brann told CNN.

Mozambique: Mozambican Elections - What to Make of Dhlakama's Intention to Run for President

ANALYSIS

On Friday 23 May, Afonso Dhlakama - the long-time leader of the Mozambican National Resistance (Resistência Nacional Moçambicana, or Renamo) - officially announced his intention to run for president in Mozambique's next presidential election, scheduled for 15 October this year. Renamo's National Council is expected to meet in June to decide whether to endorse Dhlakama's fifth bid for the presidency.

Dhlakama's announcement came on the heels of his delayed registration on 8 May to vote in the polls - just a day before the registration deadline. The Mozambican government had extended the original 29 April deadline by 10 days after the National Electoral Commission (NEC) noted that bad weather, logistics and political reasons - particularly insecurity in the Sofala province - had hampered the voter registration process.

There are four key reasons why Dhlakama's much-publicised registration and presidential bid announcement are truly momentous. Firstly, his registration came after he'd spent almost seven months out of the public sphere. Dhlakama had been hiding in the Gorongosa forest since 21 October 2013, when Mozambican government forces stormed Renamo's Satunjira base camp in response to a series of military attacks, mainly in central Sofala. The rebel-group-turned-opposition-party, Renamo, responded by declaring an end to the General Peace Agreement (GPA) that it had concluded with the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, orFrelimo) on 4 October 1992, and which had ended the country's 16-year-long civil war.

Secondly, the protracted and often unproductive negotiations between the Frelimo government and Renamo have taken a huge step forward.Renamo alleged that Frelimo's political and economic governance strategy had excluded both Renamo and the country's wider citizenry, and subsequently made three demands during the negotiations. The first was a demand for greater representation in state institutions - particularly the national security forces. The second was that the electoral system, including the NEC, be reformed on the grounds that it has allegedly manipulated past electoral processes in favour of Frelimo. The third demand was that Renamo be granted a more equitable share of the country's natural resources, although the party did not specify how this could be achieved. In turn, the government had demanded the demilitarisation of Renamo. Since the beginning of 2013, dialogue between the government and Renamo had failed to make any progress, which resulted in Renamo boycotting the country's municipal polls in November 2013.

In February this year, Frelimo and Renamo finally reached agreement on one of the key points on their negotiating agenda - electoral reform. The two parties agreed on the amendment of Law No. 6/2013 of 22 February 2013, which regulates the functioning, composition and organisation of the NEC. Under the reform, the central NEC was increased from 13 to 17 members, with Renamo being granted two additional commissioners, bringing its tally to four.

Frelimo retained its five-member allocation, and the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM) - the third party represented in Mozambique's parliament - kept its solitary appointee. The remaining seven are from the forum of civil society organisations. Although Mozambique's constitution provides that the NEC is an independent and impartial body, the appointment of commissioners on the basis of political party representation in parliament lends the electoral management body to politicisation.

The politicisation of the electoral institutions was extended to the provincial and district levels, where the 15-member provincial and district NECs include three commissioners from Frelimo, two from Renamo and one from the MDM. In the central Technical Secretariat for Election Administration (STAE), which provides administrative support to the NEC, the parties appointed 18 members: nine from Frelimo, eight from Renamo and one from MDM. Six members compose the provincial and districts' STAE: three from Frelimo, two from Renamo and one from MDM.

The third reason why Dhlakama's presidential bid is so important is that it clears up any uncertainty over Renamo's participation in the October 2014 polls; at least for the moment. Renamo's boycott of the municipal elections risked its survival as the country's major opposition party. The fast-growing MDM built on its control of two of Mozambique's largest municipalities - Beira and Quelimane - to emerge from the municipal elections as a stronger opposition force in Mozambican politics. The MDM garnered overwhelming victories in these two municipalities, as well as winning another two, Nampula and Gurué, and performing strongly in areas once regarded as Frelimo strongholds.

The party and its charismatic leader,Daviz Simango, will certainly contend strongly in the forthcoming general elections - particularly against a backdrop of a politically active urban population that holds the ruling Frelimo party in contempt. Dhlakama and Renamo have their work cut out as other leading contenders, while Filipe Nyussi of the ruling Frelimo party and Simango of the MDM will have had a head start. Dhlakama, although only just emerging from hiding, will have to hit the campaign trail soon.

Fourth, it seems that Renamo has decided to compete against the government with ballots instead of bullets. This could signal the party's amenability to the declaration of a ceasefire. Critics believe that Renamo has used its armed cadres as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the government, and that it would be reluctant to disarm and participate in purely peaceful political activities. However, there is hope in the fact that warmongering could alienate the party from the Mozambican electorate when its parliamentarians are eager to retain their seats at the forthcoming polls. As Suzanne Van Hooff, a security analyst noted, Renamo would have to make the hard choice of suppressing aspirations to gain senior positions in the army and the police force, before it can gain widespread support amongst the Mozambican people.

It is therefore vital that the Frelimo government and Renamo continue negotiations with a sincere resolve to reach agreement on fundamental outstanding issues - particularly a ceasefire and the disarmament of Renamo insurgents - to create conducive conditions for peaceful elections. The Frelimo government could effectively implement, monitor and evaluate mechanisms to address the needs and expectations of former combatants, 20 years after the war. This includes identifying and registering genuine ex-combatants, including newly disarmed and demobilised Renamo insurgents, so that they can access compensation in the form of pensions.

This could help create conditions for Mozambicans - including Dhlakama and Renamo - to participate freely in a peaceful electoral process. Encouragingly, the combination of factors that led to the parties' consensus around electoral reform still exists. These include Renamo's diminished capacity to wage sustained guerrilla warfare; the Frelimo government's concern about the adverse economic consequences of continued instability; and pressure from civil society and the media. These are the factors that can truly promote the parties' engagement in sincere peace dialogue.

Somalia: Somali Parliament Attack Kills At Least 18

Al-Shabab militants stormed Somalia's parliament building Saturday in a bomb and gun attack that killed at least 18 people, including some of the attackers.

Police spokesman Kasim Ahmed Roble told VOA Somali Service 10 security officers with Somali forces and AMISOM were among those killed during the attack on the heavily-fortified building in Mogadishu. He said 14 security personnel were wounded, along with four lawmakers.

Ahmed Roble said at least eight of the attackers were killed.

Witnesses say lawmakers were meeting inside the building when a car bomb exploded near the entrance. Then came more blasts and gunfire from attackers wearing suicide vests. An ensuing gun fight lasted for hours.

One member of parliament, defense committee chairman Hussein Arab Isse, said there was advance warning about the attack from Somalia's internal security committee, which called for tighter security. However, he said the report apparently "was not taken seriously."

Somali state-run radio reported the country's National Security Minister, Abdikarim Hussein Guled, resigned hours after the attack.

Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed condemned the attack, which he said showed that terrorists are "against all Somalis." He said such "cowardly, despicable" acts are not "a demonstration of the true Islamic faith."

The prime minister applauded the "swift response" from Somalia's military and security units from AMISOM, the African Union force in Somalia.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the violence and said there could be no justification for such attacks.

Al-Shabab at one point held large parts of Somalia, but was pushed out of major cities by the AU forces and Somali government.

The group has continued to carry out attacks, including a February assault on the presidential palace in Mogadishu that left at least 17 people dead.

The United States condemned the attack, calling it "cowardly" and a "heinous act of terrorism." A State Department release said the U.S. continues to stand firmly with the Somali government and international partners supporting Somali efforts against the al-Qaida linked al-Shabab.

Djibouti: Deadly Blast in Djibouti

Officials in Djibouti say two explosions have killed at least two people at a restaurant frequented by Westerners in the country's capital.

Few details were immediately confirmed. Police described a grenade attack while the country's Interior Ministry said it was carried out by suicide bombers.

Several people were also wounded in the Saturday attack at a downtown restaurant named Chaumiere.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Djibouti hosts French and U.S. military bases and has contributed troops to the African Union force fighting al-Shabab in neighboring Somalia.

Nigerian Military Sights Abducted Chibok Schoolgirls in 3 Boko Haram Camps

Abuja — Foreign specialists have yet to provide any concrete assistance for the search, and rescue of the Chibok schoolgirls, military sources say.

Nigeria's Special Forces from the Army's 7th Division have sighted and narrowed the search for the more than 250 abducted Chibok schoolgirls to three camps operated by the extremist Boko Haram sect north of Kukawa at the western corridors of the Lake Chad, senior military and administration officials have said.

"It has been a most difficult but heroic breakthrough," one senior military official said in Abuja.

That claim was supported by another senior commander from the Army's 7th Division, the military formation created to deal with the insurgency in the Northeast. The 7th Division is headquartered in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

The breakthrough comes at a critical moment for the Nigerian military that has faced cutting criticism over its handling of the kidnapping of the girls more than a month ago.

The news is also key for the Maiduguri-based 7th Division a week after a humiliating mutiny by troops of its 101 battalion who fired at the General Officer Commanding the division, Ahmadu Mohammed, a Major General.

Maj. Gen. Mohammed escaped unhurt, but has since been redeployed. The soldiers blamed him for the deaths of at least four of their colleagues killed near Chibok, a remote community in Borno State where the girls were taken captives April 14.

But military insiders said Mr. Mohammed was targeted for daring to arrest the growing indiscipline within his troop.

The abductions have sparked international outrage, with the United States, United Kingdom, France and Israel, providing intelligence and surveillance assistance.

Nigerian military officials coordinating the search and other officials in Abuja said Boko Haram insurgents split the girls into batches and held them at their camps in Madayi, Dogon Chuku and Meri, all around the Sector 3 operational division of the Nigerian military detachment confronting the group's deadly campaign.

Another source said there is a fourth camp at Kangarwa, also in Borno State. That claim could not be independently verified.

"Our team first sighted the girls on April 26 and we have been following their movement with the terrorists ever since," one of our sources said.

"That's why we just shake our heads when people insinuate that the military is lethargic in the search for the girls."

The location of the abducted girls - north east of Kukawa - opens a new insight into the logistic orientation of Boko Haram, responsible for thousands of deaths in a five-year long insurgency. President Goodluck Jonathan said the group has killed at least 12,000 people so far - that's minus the hundreds killed in a car bomb on Tuesday in Jos and the about 10 murdered on Sunday in Kano in a suicide bombing.

But the details established by the military shows that while the world's attention is focused on the Sambisa forest reserves, about 330 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the terrorists mapped a complex mission that began at Chibok, and veered north east of Sambisa, before heading to west of Bama and east of Konduga.Washington, DC

With the sighting, officials fear that Boko Haram militants may be seeking to create new options of escape all the way to Lo-gone-Et Chari in Cameroon to its Southeast, Lake Chad to its east and Diffa in Niger Republic to its north, providing a multiple escape options in the event of hostile ground operations against it.

Notwithstanding the sighting, the government is said not to be considering the use of force against the extremists, a choice informed by concerns for the safety of the students.

But with growing local and international pressure, a likely option may be for the authorities to enter into talks with the group, whose leader, Abubakar Shekau, in a May 12 video broadcast, called for dialogue and "prisoner" swap with the government.

The government has ruled out that option in the open but knowledgeable sources in Abuja hinted at a possible "twin track" approach that includes open rejection and a closet engagement.

"That option is not as bitter as you think in the face of the alternatives confronting us," the source who has deep insight on the thinking of the administration, said.

"Government is working hard to free the girls in less than one week, possibly before end of this week," the source said.

Defence spokesperson, Chris Olukolade, a Major General, told PREMIUM TIMES he would not comment on the ongoing rescue operation.

"You don't expect me to tell you that the girls have been sighted or have not been sighted," Mr. Olukolade said. "I will only say our team are working hard and taking note of every information provided to ensure that our girls are rescued without delay."

Civic leader Shehu Sani who fired a letter to the Sultan of Sokoto and leader of Nigeria's Muslim, however told PREMIUM TIMES that what must be done urgently is for the Sultan to summon all the influential Islamic clerics with credibility in the north and use them to reach out to the insurgents to release the girls.

"As far as I know this has not been done and to expect the committee [headed by former army intelligence chief, Major General Sani Bako] now working to determine the situation of the Chibok abduction to help on this will be a waste of time," Mr. Sani said.

How far with foreign assistance

PREMIUM TIMES checks indicate no significant help has so far come from the horde of military experts that flew in from the UK, Canada, France, Spain, the United States and Israel to help Nigeria in the search for the girls.

For the army, according to inside sources, the critical needs now, to contain the insurgency, are airlift helicopters, armoured tanks, and protective gears, but the foreign military presence is not leading in that direction.

President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed at the just concluded World Economic Forum on Africa, in Abuja, that the administration had recently approved USD1 billion to spend on military hardware and that more funds were needed.

PREMIUM TIMES reliably gathered from army sources in Maiduguri and Abuja that foreign military assistance has so far been greeted with some ambivalence or perhaps distractions.

"Foreign military assistance you speak about has been largely in the media and for international public relations value that is almost certainly not likely to end up in boots on the ground or badly needed weaponry to assist us here," one of our sources said.

One arm of the foreign assistance cell of the United States with about 30 men and the UK with 10 men have been largely based in Abuja holding "endless meetings" with local officers.

Local officers in Maiduguri say they "haven't as much as seen even the slightest intelligence from our foreign friends."

This claim belies the widely held views of military cooperation at the intelligence levels, since the US Air Force (USAF) Beechcraft MC-12W Liberty aircraft, based in Niamey in Niger, began flying over the north east regionWashington, DC, according to reports from the Jane's Defense magazine, quoting U.S. government sources.

Niamey is also base to the USAF General Atomics MQ-1 Predator UAVs but they have not been reported to be participating on the northeast mission against Boko Haram.

Jane's magazine also reported that the USAF base in Niamey will soon be joined by the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying from US Naval Air Station Sigonella on Sicily.

If the foreign forces triggers into active mission, the French, which deployed two General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles to Ndjamena in January, and which keeps a large detachment of Dassault Rafale and Dassault Mirage 2000 fighters as well as Boeing KC-135FR tankers, will be the most influential on account of their proximity to the location sites of the abducted girls near the Chad borders.

Last Saturday, May 18, the UK deployed the A Raytheon Sentinel R.1 Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) aircraft from its base at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire to Accra.

The overall air operation by the United States, United Kingdom, and France that is concentrated on building the information picture of the crisis zone and coordinating airborne ISTAR, satellite imagery, and signals intelligence assets to best effect, is being co-coordinated by AFRICOM's air coordination station at Ramstein Airbase in Germany.

Egypt's Mubarak Sentenced to Three Years

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (file photo).

Cairo — An Egyptian court has sentenced former President Hosni Mubarak to three years in prison after he was convicted of embezzling public funds to build and renovate presidential palaces.

His sons, Alaa and Gamal, were sentenced to four years.

Pistorius sent for tests at Pretoria psychiatric hospital

Judge Thokozile Masipa delivered her judgement to the court

The judge in the Oscar Pistorius trial has ordered him to start daily tests on Monday to assess his mental state when he killed his girlfriend.

Judge Thokozile Masipa told the South African athlete to attend Weskoppies psychiatric hospital in Pretoria as an outpatient for a month.

It comes after a defence witness said the double amputee was suffering from Generalised Anxiety Disorder (Gad).

Mr Pistorius denies intentionally killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

He says he accidentally shot her through the toilet door on Valentine's Day last year in a state of panic, mistaking the 29-year-old model and law graduate for an intruder.

'Criminally responsible'

The prosecution had argued the tests were essential after forensic psychiatrist Merryll Vorster told the court in Pretoria the double amputee was "a danger to society".

But the defence vigorously opposed the move.

The Olympic and Paralympic track star must attend Weskoppies psychiatric hospital in Pretoria

Mr Pistorius spoke to his brother Carl (right) after getting the details of his psychiatric assessment

Mr Pistorius says he mistook Reeva Steenkamp - model and law graduate - for an intruder

Judge Masipa said on Tuesday that four appointed psychiatrists would "inquire into whether the accused by reason of mental illness or mental defect was at the time of the commission of the offence criminally responsible for the offence as charged."

She said the team would decide whether he was "capable of appreciating the wrongfulness of his act".

Court proceedings were adjourned until 30 June.

Legal experts say that the case may well hinge on the judge's understanding of the athlete's state of mind when he pulled the trigger.

They say the prosecution is keen to show that the defence keeps changing its reasons why Mr Pistorius fired his gun - from putative self-defence, to accidental shooting, and now to something linked to his anxiety disorder.

Prosecution lawyer Gerrie Nel has also said he is trying to prevent mental illness being used as an argument in any future appeal.

Last week Judge Masipa said that the criminal code stipulates that if an accused person is alleged not to be criminally responsible or is alleged to be mentally ill, he should be evaluated.

Weskoppies psychiatric hospital was founded in 1892 and is a 1,400-bed hospital affiliated to the University of Pretoria.

There are no juries at trials in South Africa, so the athlete's fate will ultimately be decided by the judge, assisted by two assessors.

If found guilty of murder, Mr Pistorius could face life imprisonment. If he is acquitted of that charge, the court will consider an alternative charge of culpable homicide, for which he could receive about 15 years in prison.

The BBC's Michelle Roberts explains what Generalised Anxiety Disorder is

 

Nigeria: UPDATE: Police confirm 46 killed in Jos explosion

Abuja — The Police have confirmed that at least 46 persons were killed in the explosions that rocked Jos, the Plateau State capital, on Tuesday afternoon.

The Plateau Police Commissioner, Chris Olakpe, confirmed the casualty to journalists.

Mr. Olakpe also said at least 45 others were injured.

The casualty figure was confirmed after emergency officials took corpses of the dead to the hospital.

During the evacuation, the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, had said the casualty figure from the bomb explosions were 'massive.'

The NEMA Coordinator for the North Central, Abdulsalam Abubakar, also said the explosive devices were placed in cars.

"I can't tell you the figure of those killed by the blasts now, because we are still evacuating bodies from the scene," Mr. Abubakar said.

"The only thing I can say is that the casualty figure is very massive. It is a catastrophe.

"The bombers parked the cars and left the explosives to detonate. It was in the market and at a peak period. So, you can only imagine what could have happened,'' he added.

The NEMA official said dead bodies and mutilated human parts were being deposited at the old and new Jos University Teaching Hospitals, as well as the Plateau Special Hospital.

"There are also a massive number of people injured. We have conveyed some to various hospitals,'' he said.

He said that an idea of the number of casualties was only possible after the rescue operation.

"We will have to first finish the operation and then visit the various hospitals. For now, we are only picking dead bodies all over the place,'' Mr. Abubakar said.

The two explosive devices went off in a space of about 15 minutes at the Terminus Market, also known as Jos Main Market, between Railway Terminus and temporary site of the Jos University Teaching Hospital.

Sudan: Refusing to See Darfur's Agony

OPINION

Myopic and lazy reporting, political expediency have left millions to suffer and die invisibly.

While the news media in most of the world focus with relentless obsession on some three hundred girls kidnapped in Nigeria by the barbaric Boko Haram, stories of much greater human magnitude continue to unfold without so much as a glancing notice. It is hard not to feel the pain of these girls and their families; but it is dwarfed by the plight of so many girls, in so many places around the world.

And yet, as if determined to attune U.S. foreign policy to the most telegenically compelling news stories from around the world, the Obama administration's response has been absurdly out of proportion, given the reality of places like Darfur. There many tens of thousands of girls have been killed during what has become a grim genocide by attrition, now entering its second decade with almost complete invisibility. It is almost certain that tens of thousands of girls, many very young, have been raped--some brutally, even fatally gang-raped. These outrageously cruel assaults often occur in front of families in order to magnify the social stigma attached to rape. Thousands of non-Arab or African girls and women have been abducted to become sexual slaves of Arab militia groups, sometimes for extended periods of time.

Why do these massive atrocities receive no commensurate attention from either the news media or the Obama administration? To be sure, the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime in Khartoum grants no news-reporting access to Darfur, except for an occasional carefully controlled visit to one of the three capital cities of the region. The fact that Radio Dabanga so regularly and fully reports on developments in Darfur must also be discouraging of international news efforts, which at best could glean, even with Arabic speaking journalists, but a few telling facts from interviews in the limited time that Khartoum might allow them. Moreover, all signs are that the regime is cracking down yet harder on news media, both domestic and international. Without greater resourcefulness by journalists, Darfur will move even further into eclipse.

This, however, is no excuse for the Obama administration, which must be fully aware of what is occurring--if only because so reliably and consistently reported by Radio Dabanga. Also, humanitarian aid organizations and their staff can be confidentially de-briefed on returning from Darfur; satellite imagery can be readily produced; communication with various leaders and figures of importance in Darfuri civil society is also possible (including those in the diaspora). But the U.S. seems determined to ignore Darfur. Indeed, it was well over three years ago that the Obama administration explicitly "de-coupled" Darfur from the key issue of counter-terrorism cooperation between Khartoum and Washington (the word "de-coupled" was used by a "senior administration official," unnamed in the State Department transcript). But if nominally bearing only on counter-terrorism cooperation, the "de-coupling" of Darfur has in fact become complete, and the signs of this are everywhere in the administration of a president who did not hesitate to make bold use of the Darfur issue in 2008, deploying the strongest possible rhetoric in demonstrating his "Darfur credentials" to voters.

This suggests why senior officials of the Obama administration have waxed so indignant about the Boko Haram kidnappings, and "declared to Congress that freeing the schoolgirls abducted by the radical Islamist group last month has become one of the Obama administration's top priorities" (Associated Press [Washington], May 15, 2014). This is a shameful pandering, and badly skews real priorities. Republicans have behaved in a manner just as appalling and self-serving, trying to politicize the issue by asking why then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not declare Boko Haram a terrorist organization in 2012. The narrowness of vision, the parochialism, the constant testing for the most visceral issue on the minds of voters--all this grotesquely distorts public understanding of the problems that really deserve to be "top priorities."

Why isn't the terrible and much greater plight of hundreds of thousands of girls in Darfur a "top priority" for the Obama administration? The answer all too clearly is that the Darfur crisis is challenging and would require commitment of substantial resources; international consensus is thin; and responding meaningfully would endanger the counter-terrorism cooperation that defines U.S. Sudan policy in the Obama administration. There is, finally, no evidence that this administration is committed to ending the suffering, insecurity, and human destruction endured by millions of Darfuris.

As I've argued previously, the case of Syria has also provided occasion for hypocrisy on the part of the Obama administration. The administration response to Syria's use of chemical weapons against civilians, including hundreds of children, has created an expedient moral framework out ultimately in service of political goals. The implicit claim has been made repeatedly, most notably by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, that children's deaths from chemical weapons are more "heinous" or "morally obscene" than all others. I believe this to be a dismayingly invidious comparison. The claim that a child who dies from a chemical attack dies a more horrible death than the child in Darfur who dies in agony--over many hours, having been eviscerated by the shrapnel exploding out a bomb dropped from a high-flying, grossly inaccurate Antonov cargo plane--is perversely expedient.

In fact, the Obama administration has a dismally weak record of condemning the many hundreds of aerial attacks on civilians in Darfur, as well as in South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Certainly nothing that is said amounts to more than boilerplate, a fact not lost on the Khartoum regime. It's hardly surprising that U.S. and international condemnation of such war crimes has been not only tepid but utterly inconsequential. Khartoum bombs civilians wherever and whenever it wishes, not deterred in the slightest by international statements. Indeed, every aerial attack in Darfur--whether it be of military or civilian targets--is a direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1591 (March 2005). And although the UN/African Union "hybrid" peacekeeping force (UNAMID) is scandalous in its failures to report such attacks, a number of the UN Panels of Experts on Darfur--created to monitor compliance with the arms embargo and a ban on all military flights in Darfur--have reported in detailed fashion on numerous egregious violations of all terms of Resolution 1591. There have been no consequences, and Khartoum's violations continue apace.

In effect, the international community--led by the U.S., the UN, the EU, and the African Union--has conceded Khartoum's "victory" in Darfur. There has been no concerted effort to control the violence that has now spiraled out of control, imperiling all remaining humanitarian capacity. The more than 2 million internally displaced persons are more vulnerable than ever--from lack of food, water, and medicine, but also from attacks by the ever more brazen reincarnation of the Janjaweed known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Rape of girls and women, by the thousands, continues with complete impunity. Displaced persons camps are attacked more frequently and more violently. Land appropriated from African farmers by Arab pastoralists has permanently changed the demographics of Darfur, precisely the genocidal ambition announced in August 2004 by Musa Hilal, the most infamous of the Janjaweed leaders earlier in the conflict and still a cruel and potent force in the region:

The ultimate objective in Darfur is spelled out in an August 2004 directive from [Janjaweed paramount leader Musa] Hilal's headquarters: "change the demography" of Darfur and "empty it of African tribes." Confirming the control of [Khartoum's] Military Intelligence over the Darfur file, the directive is addressed to no fewer than three intelligence services--the Intelligence and Security Department, Military Intelligence and National Security, and the ultra-secret "Constructive Security," or Amn al Ijabi. (Julie Flint and Alex de Waal, Darfur: A Short History of a Long War, Zed Books, 2005)

Accepting that this ambition continues to animate Khartoum's actions in Darfur has proved too awkward for the Obama administration, despite the success of the strategy announced a decade ago. For of course the overwhelming number of displaced persons are African; those who have lost their lands and livelihoods are overwhelmingly African; and the some 500,000 people who have died from violence and its consequences in Darfur and eastern Chad (including violent displacement) are overwhelmingly African. The people bombed by Khartoum are overwhelmingly African; the girls and women raped, often while being forced to hear hateful racial epithets, are overwhelmingly African. The fact that Arab tribal groups have also begun to fight one another in much more serious fashion changes none of this.

And yet it is clear that the international community has essentially conceded victory to Khartoum's génocidaires. Stopping the regime's efforts, which now take a wide range of forms, including denial of humanitarian access to critically needy civilians, would require real effort. Building consensus among those with the power to threaten Khartoum economically is challenging. And the UN/AU force on the ground, while a terrible failure, at least provides the fig-leaf of protection in the region, however ineffective UNAMID is in preventing or reporting violence against civilians. When these challenges are coupled with the lack of news reporting and the absence of any credible human rights reporting presence, even public opinion--so strong in the years leading up to Obama's election as president--is no longer a problem. Few still care about Darfur and even fewer have any real sense of what is happening.

In response to this last challenge I can do no more than organize the recent dispatches from Radio Dabanga, by date and the nature of events. But let us be clear that there is not a total absence of information. And the UN, which has performed erratically in Darfur over the years, has issued a statement through UNICEF that should put the kidnapped girls of Nigeria in at least statistical perspective:

The UN children's rights and relief organisation, UNICEF, has warned that an entire generation in Darfur may be lost as a result of more than ten years of violence in the region."Life in the camps might produce a new generation without ambition," the UNICEF Representative in Sudan, Geert Cappelaere, said in a press statement issued on Saturday. In particular as about 60 percent of the displaced in Darfur are minors."He warned that the children growing up in the Darfur camps for the displaced may not be able to return to a normal life. Many are traumatised after having witnessed attacks against their families or being themselves subjected to violence, abduction, and other assaults.In addition, the malnutrition figures are very high. Cappelaere pointed to North Darfur which is listed first of the Darfur states suffering from an acute food crisis. "More than 80,000 children in North Darfur are severely malnourished. South Darfur State comes second in the list."The world should not turn its back to the tragedy of the children in Darfur," the UNICEF official urged. (Radio Dabanga, May 12, 2014) ("Severe Acute Malnutrition" [SAM] is typically fatal in children under five if untreated with therapeutic feeding--ER)

Search engines suggest that only Radio Dabanga and Thomson Reuters Foundation (London) reported on this extraordinary announcement by UNICEF. A similar search for "Nigerian girls" + "Boko Haram" yields a figure measured in the millions.

Perhaps this is a moment in which news organizations might feel compelled to reflect on their journalistic choices. They may continue to report as they have, driven by what seem the "sexiest," most audience-drawing, most accessible stories of human tragedy. Or some may see that the obsession with Malaysian Flight 370 and the Boko Haram kidnappings permits consumers with a prurient love of spectacle to drive news content, indeed to define "news." Perhaps, just perhaps this may be a catalyst for re-committing to reporting news that is most consequential, in the broadest terms, for well-informed citizens of the world. A present, however, such commitment is nowhere in sight, so for Darfur at least we must rely on Radio Dabanga.