On the eve of the African summit hosted by Sudan, Khartoum comes under intense international pressure to put its house in order, writes Gamal Nkrumah The international community intends to break the stalemate over the security situation in Darfur. Barring a miracle or a disaster, Sudan is bracing itself for the influx of more international peace-keepers. At the moment there are some 7,800 African Union (AU) troops monitoring the tentative ceasefire in the war-torn westernmost province of Darfur. The rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in Darfur has become a major concern of the international community and neighbouring African countries. Western powers believe that it is high time that the United Nations dispatches peace-keeping troops to monitor the situation in Darfur and keep the warring protagonists from being at each others' throats. The Sudanese government has vociferously objected to the presence of non-African peace-keepers on Sudanese soil. Khartoum, instead, suggested that a tripartite force including its own troops, armed opposition movements and the African Union to maintain peace in Darfur. However, opposition figures have also voiced outrage. The National Democratic Alliance, the umbrella grouping composed of the leading northern Sudanese political groups and southern group the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), has voiced strong opposition to the presence of foreign troops in Sudan. Sudan's leading Islamist ideologue Hassan Al-Turabi, leader of the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) has spoken out against the presence of foreign forces in the country. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Sudan's independence from Britain in 1956, Al-Turabi said that Sudan was not an independent nation. "The African troops stationed in Darfur have not delivered. They were funded by the West and have benefited from the dubious Western benevolence. But peace and security in Darfur are as elusive as ever," Al-Turabi told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Now they want to bring in the better armed and more sophisticated Western armies." He said that the Sudanese government has failed the people of Darfur and of Sudan as a whole. "Repression and abuse of human rights have reached horrendous levels. The Sudanese people are utterly frustrated and downtrodden," he said. "We don't have one army here. We have a record of how many armies foreign and local you have in one country. Would you call that independence," Al-Turabi asked askance. Umma Party leader and former Sudanese prime minister Sadig Al-Mahdi also voiced grave concern at the prospect of increased foreign peace- keeping troops on Sudanese soil. Al-Mahdi, a close Al-Turabi ally, is also outspokenly critical to the manner in which the Sudanese government is handling the Darfur crisis. The international community is more concerned, however, with stemming the tide of humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur. The Sudanese government has held peace talks with the two major armed opposition groups in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The stalled talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja are scheduled to resume next week. The Sudanese authorities also dismissed UN Security Council Resolution 1593 which was severely critical of the Sudanese authorities and human rights abuses in Darfur. Khartoum has so far treated international threats with impunity, feigning indifference to the international uproar about Darfur. The secularist SLA armed opposition group -- not to be confused with the southern-based SPLA -- is facing a ruinous power struggle over leadership. The ongoing power struggle inside the SLA further dimmed the prospect of successful peace talks with the Sudanese government in Abuja. SLA Secretary-General Mani Arko Minawi is challenging the authority of SLA Chairman Abdul-Wahid Mohamed Nur. There is also a tribal dimension to the split. Nur is fast losing popularity among the rank and file who met in what was described as a "general congress" boycotted by Nur, the SLA founder, in the South Darfur town of Haskanitah. The tribal factionalism splitting the SLA has only complicated the Darfur peace talks in Abuja. At any rate, Khartoum is in for a rough ride. It is hard pressed to deliver. In a separate development, and the first real test of the year-old Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the Sudanese government and the former armed opposition largely southern Sudanese-based group SPLA, fighting erupted between government forces and SPLA fighters in Hamesh Koreb, eastern Sudan. The skirmishes in eastern Sudan, threaten to derail the peace process especially if it escalates further. "This is creating a void with a potential for new armed conflict," warned UN envoy Jan Pronk. Pronk also warned that civilian personnel are needed in Sudan. He disclosed that the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) now fielded roughly 4,400 personnel across Sudan and was to field far more people in the country. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the UN would field a "different force structure" in Sudan than that of the AU. He said the UN force "has to be mobile, has to have tactical air support, must have helicopters and the ability to respond very quickly." Last month, the cash-strapped AU said it needed over $130 million in new contributions to meet the $465 million. There are good reasons to think that the UN will make good its promise.
