138,000 people on the run from the civil war in Darfur

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) accuses the European Union of paying court to Sudan despite repeated serious human rights violations. “EU Development Commissioner Neven Mimica promised to further the cooperation with the Government of Sudan – despite the recent escalations in the civil war in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains, despite the increasing attacks against UN peacekeepers, and despite the attempts to obstruct the work of Sudanese human rights activists,” criticized Ulrich Delius, the STP’s Africa-expert, in Göttingen on Thursday. According to local human rights groups and humanitarian organizations, about 138.000 people have left their homes around the Jebel-Marra massif in the province of North Darfur because of new military attacks since mid-January 2016. About 150 villages were destroyed.

On Monday and Tuesday, Commissioner Mimica held talks about how to put the 155 million Euros to use that the EU has made available for refugee programs in Sudan in the coming months. Primarily, the programs are supposed to keep refugees from East Africa from migrating to Europe.

“Apparently, it is becoming more and more beneficial for African despots to cooperate with Europe in the scope of the refugee crisis,” said Delius. First, the refugee problem was a convenient door opener for Sudan to gain international recognition, following years of diplomatic isolation due to crimes against humanity. Now, it has also become a profitable business. In 2015, the EU budget only included 18.5 million Euros for the so-called Khartoum process, which serves as a basis for cooperation with the countries of East Africa in the refugee crisis. Now, the sums are increasing. On Tuesday, Mimica thus negotiated a new development program in Khartoum: more than 100 million Euros to combat the causes of migration and “instability”, more than 40 million Euros for a better migration management, and more than 15 million Euros for specific aid programs, especially for refugees from Eritrea.

“For the sake of cooperation with the Sudanese despot Omar Hassan al Bashir – who is wanted by warrant – the EU has chosen to ignore Sudan’s important role in fueling the refugee crisis in East Africa by providing weapons for militias and military offensives,” criticized Delius. War crimes such as targeted bombings against civilians and the use of barrel bombs are being ignored. In February 2016, the Sudanese air force dropped at least 37 barrel bombs and other bombs on civilian targets in the embattled Nuba Mountains (South Kordofan). Further, the Sudanese authorities even kept four Sudanese human rights activists from crossing the border in March 2016, as they were planning to inform the United Nations in Geneva about the ongoing human rights violations.

Header Photo: hdptcar via Flickr