Yearbook 2007
Sudan. In January, 14 UN agencies reported that their
humanitarian efforts in the Darfur region risked collapsing
unless security was improved. According to
CountryAAH, the situation in Darfur
engaged the world community throughout the year, but despite
the fact that 2.5 million people in the region lost their
homes and over 200,000 were killed since 2003, this year no
significant progress was made in efforts to stop the
violence.
The conflict in Darfur also affected the situation in the
eastern parts of Chad and led to some border fighting on
some occasions. In May, the governments of both countries
pledged to work with the UN and the African Union (AU) to
stabilize the entire region. The Sudanese regime was
pressured to allow a larger peacekeeping force than the weak
AU force of 7,000 men who tried in vain to curb the
violence. The plans for a so-called hybrid force led jointly
by the UN and the AU began to take shape during the year,
and in July the UN Security Council granted such a force a
total of about 26,000 men. The infantry soldiers would
primarily be taken from African countries, while countries
outside Africa would assist with engineer troops and
command. Sweden and Norway planned to send a joint
engineering union of 350 men but encountered political
opposition from the Sudanese regime, which accused them of
planning espionage. On New Year's Eve, the hybrid force,
called the United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID),
formally took over the responsibility of the AU force. The
clearest sign of the hitherto most symbolic change was that
the soldiers exchanged their green bases for UN blue.
Proof that the UN/AU mission is not harmless was given
when an AU federation was attacked in late September and at
least ten soldiers were killed. Both organizations - the UN
represented by Sweden's former Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson
- made great efforts during the year to bring the parties in
Darfur to new peace negotiations to create a basis for the
military peacekeeping operation. However, the fragmentation
among the "African" rebel groups was very large, and peace
talks in the Libyan city of Sirte were boycotted by most
important groups. When a Chinese engineering squad arrived
in Darfur in November, it was the rebel movement JEM (the
Justice and Equality Movement) that had objections. The
suspicious China, which it believed was too close to the
Sudanese government.
While the opportunities for a major international effort
remained obscured, the humanitarian crisis continued to
worsen. When the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs
Secretary, John Holmes, issued a report in November, he
could only state that the security situation that had been
in crisis in January was now even more precarious.
Parallel to the disaster in Darfur, a new crisis emerged
in the old conflict between northern and southern Sudan. The
South Sudanese former guerrilla SPLM (Sudanese People's
Liberation Movement) in October left the unification
government in Khartoum on the grounds that the north side
had not complied with the peace treaty on troupe retreat
from the southern provinces. Nor was there any solution to
the disputed and oil-rich Abyei region's future. Both sides
initially optimistically said that the crisis would soon be
resolved, but in late autumn everything indicated that the
mediation talks had stalled.
Sudan - Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum,, Arab al-Kharṭūzūm, Khartum, capital of Sudan; 2.
7 million residents (2012). Khartoum is located between the Blue and White Nile
where they form the Nile. Together with the neighboring cities al-Khartum
Bahri (North Khartoum) on the eastern side of the Nile and Omdurman (Umm
Durman) on the Nile's west side, the city forms a conurbation with 4. 2 million
residents (2012). Khartoum has an international airport and is Sudan's cultural,
political and economic center.
Khartoum was founded in 1825 by the Turkish-Egyptian rulers in Sudan and in
1833 became the capital of Sudan. The city grew rapidly; In 1840 it had more
than 10,000 residents and in 1883 about 50,000, of which about 1/3 were slaves.
During the Mahabist revolt of 1885–99, Omdurman was instead the capital. After
the British-Egyptian conquest of Sudan in 1898, Khartoum was re-established as
the capital.
Khartoum came to the center of attention in 1884 in connection with the
so-called Mahdist rebellion, which aimed to break British rule over the country.
The city was defended by a British-Egyptian garrison under Charles Gordon. The
Mahdis besieged the city, which was finally stormed on January 26, 1885. In the
massacre that followed, Gordon was killed, and Khartoum was largely destroyed.
The incident initiated a domestic political crisis in the UK, which led to the
resignation of Cabinet Gladstone. Khartoum was rebuilt as the capital by Lord
Kitchener after the British-Egyptian conquest in 1898. The street network is a
copy of the British flag.
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