An agreement to make an agreement...

Darfur Fighting, Troops Block Food Delivery

By Finbarr O'Reilly (Reuters)

Mata Musing: Absurd... I was up, watching the pomp and circumstance surrounding the UN Security Council's meeting in Nairobi a couple nights ago. Lots of UN types in suits posing and profiling, supervising more guys in suits "representing" the difference factions, signing lots of documents.

And what document was that? An agreement to make a peace agreement by the end of the year.

I repeat... absurd!

Oh, BTW, in vast, sprawling Sudan, truly a communications challenged nation, just how were they planning on alerting those doing the killing and being killed that there was an agreement to make an agreement? Thus it's no surprise that the atrocities were still being carried out, despite the UN's high profile ceremony.

Meanwhile, those so severely in need of food and aid can't get to it. It's right there, but the aid workers don't have armed protection to go in and deliver in the war torn areas. Result? The UN suits will sleep better after their "monumental" ceremony, but the ones in the battle zone don't see a whit of difference in their quest for survival.

Strikes me that if the UN wants to truly be of some value, they should have just ordered bodyguards for the aid workers instead of organizing that flashy signing ceremony and spending all that cash, flying the UN Security Council to Nairobi.

Who the heck thinks up these shenanigans, presented to us as "steps toward peace"? What is the value of pieces of paper between the few elite when it can't and won't be enforced, and does nothing to dispel the generations of hatred? Insane...

EL FASHER, Sudan (Reuters) - Tribal clashes, banditry and troop movements are blocking crucial deliveries of food aid in North Darfur state despite recent peace agreements, African Union and United Nations officials said Sunday.

The African Union (AU) said it was investigating reports that 14 people had been killed in two separate incidents since Thursday near the town of Tawilla, about 40 miles west of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.

Peace deals signed in early November aimed at ending 22 months of fighting and increasing humanitarian access have done little to improve security in western Sudan's Darfur region, where hundreds of thousands of people rely on food aid.

"We are investigating a series of retaliatory tribal attacks that allegedly took place over the last four days," George Learned, a United States officer attached to the AU mission, said at a weekly security briefing in El Fasher.

"Seven people were reportedly killed on two occasions during clashes involving substantial attacking forces of 20 or more armed men," Learned said, adding there was also "a massing of troops of some sort" north of Tawilla, near the town of Korma.

Rampant insecurity caused by Darfur's war between African rebels and the government has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, according to the United Nations.

More than 1.5 million people have been driven from their homes and the U.N. says 70,000 people have been killed by violence, hunger and disease since March.

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