Fido the Yak

The Brookings Instititution's Project on Internal Displacement has released an assessment of the African Union mission in Sudan (ht Coalition for Darfur). The report presents a forthright and detailed account of the successes and failures of the mission so far. The first part of the report contains an exemplary summary of the situation in Darfur, briefly explaining how the crisis began, and how the situation has developed since the African Union became involved. The performance review is less engaging, but worth taking note of because the stakes are so high, for the people of Darfur, of course, but also for the African contintent.

The report concludes with a series of recommendations. I'll reproduce the first three, addressed to the international community:

1. Increase immediately the number of troops in Darfur to at least 20,000 and provide the requisite financial and logistical assistance. If the AU is not able to manage this increase, the UN, NATO or the EU should assume responsibility for the operation. In particular, the UN could merge AMIS with UN peacekeeping forces in southern Sudan, or NATO and the EU could contribute forces to those of AMIS.




2. Strengthen the mandate of the troops in Darfur so that they have clear responsibility to protect civilians and IDPs,insure the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance and support the safe return of IDPs and refugees to their homes.




3. Enhance support to the AU Special Envoy for the Darfur talks and increase pressure on the government of Sudan and the warring parties to negotiate a peace agreement.

Incidentally, the report includes an independent corroboration (p. 48, n. 182) of Kingibe's charge that forces allied with the Government of Sudan have been engaging in perfidy.

Update: Cf. Refugees International's report, No Power to Protect: The African Union Mission in Sudan

posted by Fido the Yak at 12:36 AM.