AU Presidency Lost for Sudan Over Darfur

In the first bit of news that resembles a good thing coming out of Sudan for far too long, this morning Sudan lost its bid to assume the presidency of the African Union. Neighboring Chad had threatened to withdraw its membership from the AU if Sudanese President Bashir were to take over the organization. At the last minute, the AU decided that its image would be damaged to too large of a degree if it allowed a genocidal leader to assume command of its forces. Had Khartoum gained control of the African Union, the rebel groups of Darfur would have taken up arms against the peacekeepers, who would have been under the same control that the genocidal Janjaweed and Sudanese armed forces are.

Ghana has taken command of the African Union.

This sigh of relief for the rebels and civilians of Darfur must not be too long overstretched, however, as thousands are fleeing their burning villages, and violence continues to rise in Darfur, eastern Chad, and northeastern Central African Republic. Humanitarian aid for civilians is collapsing: see Eric Reeve's overview of the forced humanitarian abandonment of hundreds of thousands of civilians at http://sudanreeves.org/Article143.html .