As expected, the comments about war being over in Darfur from the outgoing UNAMID commander received considerable coverage on Thursday. I did an interview with Andrew Meldrum at Global Post who was looking to situate this statement from General Agwai into the broader political and humanitarian realities for the millions of war-affected Darfuris. Here is what I said (with two corrections):
The Washington-based Save Darfur Coalition also finds fault with Agwai’s statement. “The political and humanitarian crisis in Darfur is not over. Nor is the threat of full-scale fighting over, said Sean Brooks, policy associate of Save Darfur Coalition. “We find Gen. Agwai’s statement surprising, considering that just a few weeks ago he said that the U.N. forces are only at 70 percent deployment and need to be fully deployed to protect the people of Darfur. There are still no [not enough] U.N. helicopters to fully meet the protection mandate for refugees [actually IDPs] and aid workers. 2009 has been the most dangerous year for aid workers with kidnappings and hijackings.”
Concerted international pressure, “particularly from Egypt and other neighboring states, the Arab League and the African Union is needed to get the Khartoum government to be committed to the peace process,” said Brooks.
And if you can read Spanish, here is an interview that I did with BBC Mundo. Using Google Translate, I think the reporter accurately recorded my statement.
no comment until now