Darfur rebels sentenced to death in Khartoum attack
A Sudanese court sentenced 11 members of Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to death by hanging April 22 in relation to last year's attack on Khartoum. As the sentence was read, the defendants yelled slogans, decrying what they said was an injustice and expressing support for JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim. Five other defendants were acquitted. (AlJazeera, April 24)
Meanwhile in South Sudan, more than 170 people were killed in clashes between members of the rival Lou Nuer and Murle ethnic groups in Jonglei state. Doyak Chol, commissioner of Akobo county, said April 20 that 177 bodies had been found, and that he expected the number to grow. In one of the 16 villages razed in the attacks, many children drowned in a river as they tried to flee gunmen. Remote Jonglei state—where French oil giant Total holds a massive, mainly unexplored concession—has been hit hard by cattle raiding and related killings that have split communities along ethnic lines. (AlJazeera, April 21)
See our last posts on Sudan, Darfur, and South Sudan.
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Life's little ironies
Meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, the 12th Afro-Arab Parliamentary Conference—made up of parliamentary leaders of Africa's Arab nations—called for the UN to bring war crimes charges for the "genocide, and premeditated destruction perpetrated by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza," and "reaffirms its strong condemnation of the heinous aggression launched by Israel on Gaza at the beginning of this year, condemns the organized state terrorism practiced by Israel and follows with deep concern the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the sector due to the continuation of Israeli blockade." The statement also protested the International Criminal Court's warrant against Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir over the Darfur conflict, calling it "interfering in the internal affairs of Sudan." (Daily Independent, Lagos, April 24)