![]() There is precedent for peacekeepers in Darfur, and it is worth considering. Peacekeepers in Sudan are not infeasible. This limits constructive dialogue on prevalent issues and effective utilization of a key tool in the UN Security Council’s tool kit. ![]() China and Russia continue to speak in echo chambers and maintain a hardline view of sovereignty to avoid any precedent for intervention in their own countries. However, today in a divided Security Council, a tepid approach is taken towards peacekeeping. But they saw some success, notably in Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia. To be sure, peacekeepers were limited by ambiguous and unrealistic mandates and a lack of resources to effectively carry out missions. The UN, which was founded on the principle “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” must endeavor to use the tools at its disposal to save the people of Sudan.Īt the beginning of the Millennium, peacekeeping was still viewed as a powerful and effective tool to protect civilians. ![]() Invoking R2P will lay the foundation for what will be needed when this violence subsides-a stabilization peacekeeping force. Pillars two and three need to be enforced. It is clear based on the situation in Sudan and Darfur that the authorities in Sudan are failing in their obligation to protect civilians. R2P stands on three pillars : 1) Every state has the responsibility to protect its populations from mass atrocities 2) The international community has a responsibility to assist states to meet their obligations 3) If a state is failing to protect its population, the international community must take appropriate action in line with the UN Charter. While geo-political barriers to such a step are formidable, the pace and brutality of today’s violence demand R2P to be considered.įollowing the struggles to respond swiftly and prevent war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 1990s, the Responsibility to Protect, a “political commitment to end the worst forms of violence and persecution,” came into being by an act of the United Nations General Assembly in 2005. This can take the form of a United Nations Peacekeeping force, or a hybrid force in partnership with the African Union, which seeks to enforce the Responsibility to Protect ( R2P ). But there is another measure taken in response to the violence of 20 years ago that is yet to be seriously considered- military intervention. The United States has placed sanctions on Sudanese leaders, worked with Saudi Arabia to broker short-lived ceasefires, and seems set to belatedly appoint a Special Envoy. Yet the world’s response remains muted and lacks a clear strategy for Sudan. Holocaust Memorial Museum to the UN’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide are once again warning of genocide. The rising ethnically targeted violence in the region now threatens a recurrence of that dark chapter. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of today, which is battling the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of the country, traces its origins to the Janjaweed of 20 years ago. The systematic raping, pillaging, looting, and scorched-earth-policy tactics of the Janjaweed led to the deaths of more than 300,000 people in what has been recognized as a genocide. In 2003, former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir called on the Janjaweed Arab militia to quell an uprising that was beginning in Darfur. When war broke out in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, in April 2023, those of us who know the region well feared what would happen to the west, in Darfur.
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