Darfur Update

War, conflict, ethnic struggles. When these erupt in poverty-stricken areas, it is always the defenseless who suffer most. Those with guns can take the food and water they need. The children are left to suffer.

In Darfur, it is getting more and more dangerous for relief efforts to operate there.

Fighting has made it impossible to reach large areas of the Sudanese region of Darfur, the Red Cross says.

International Committee of the Red Cross Sudan spokesman Paul Conneally told the BBC that its vehicles are being systematically looted.

He said tens of thousands of people had been forced from their homes around the rebel bases in the Marra mountains.

Aid workers are trying to help more than two million people, in what the US says is a genocide.

Mr Conneally says civilians have fled from towns in the area, which are now patrolled only by the Sudanese army.

And all the while, thousands upon thousands are fleeing.

At least 30,000 people have been displaced by recent fighting in the mountain ranges of Jebel Marra in central Darfur, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has recently regained access to parts of the region following a spate of violence that led to its evacuation.

"During a recent needs assessment, we found 64,000 people - about half of them recently displaced and living with the resident population - putting a strain on local resources," Paul Conneally, ICRC communication coordinator in Sudan, said on Tuesday. "These represent only some of the victims of the armed clashes that have been occurring in the Jebel Marra since the start of the year."

The latest clashes started when Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebels attacked the government-controlled town of Rokoro on 24 December 2005, then Golo on 23 January. The attacks violated a ceasefire agreement and led to counterattacks by the Sudanese military and allied militias.

As the clashes continued, humanitarian agencies were forced to pull out of the area in January. Although some assessments have been carried out since then, no aid organisation has been able to resume activities inside the Jebel Marra area. Many other areas, particularly in the north-central region, remain inaccessible to aid workers.

In neighnoring Chad, where the chaos in Darfur has spilled into, rebels are fighting against the Chadian government, and France is trying to navigate a course through the pitfalls.

The possible role of outsiders in Chad's war came under scrutiny Wednesday, with the United States expressing concern over reports Sudan was backing rebel forces, and the rebels criticizing French support for President Idriss Deby.

Chad, an impoverished, mostly desert country where oil was recently discovered, has rarely known peace since independence from France in 1960. Other countries often played a part in the violence. Deby himself seized power in 1990 with help from Libya and Sudan, and Libya has invaded more than once.

An April 13 rebel attack on the outskirts of the capital, N'djamena, has shaken Deby, who has tried to recast himself as a democrat and is seeking to extend his rule in May 3 elections. The rebel United Front for Democratic Change is regrouping in the countryside.

Both the rebels and Deby say intelligence from France was crucial in helping government troops repulse the rebels on April 13. The government said at least 350 people died, while the rebel group says far fewer were killed, including only 20 of its own men.

"If not for the intervention of French troops, we would today be in a position to control the country," Raoul Laona Gong, external affairs director for the rebel group, said in an interview in Paris Wednesday.

The rebels vow they will keep up their attacks against Chad's government.

Leaders of Chad’s main rebel group accused France of propping up the African country’s government and vowed more attacks if necessary to drive Chadian President Idriss Deby from power.

Tamara Acyl AhmatIn an interview Wednesday, Paris-based representatives for the United Front for Democratic Change vowed to thwart elections scheduled May 3, alleging the results have already been rigged.

Raoul Laona Gong, external affairs director for the rebel group known by the French acronym FUCD, said it had "no choice but to take up arms again because it’s the only language (Deby) understands."

Sudan is in the best position to help end the suffering in Darfur, but it won't. It uses the Arab Janjaweed militias, and Sudan does not want the UN to operate on its soil.

Sudanese officials have told the United Nations that they would not welcome a U.N. mission to assess conditions in Darfur as the world body prepares to take over peacekeeping operations, a U.N. spokesman said Wednesday.

The Khartoum government said it first wants warring factions to finish peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria. The African Union set an April 30 deadline for a peace deal which the Security Council has endorsed.

Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Hedi Annabi "was told in various meetings with Sudanese officials that they felt this was not the time for a U.N. assessment mission to go into Darfur and that they would rather wait until the Abuja process is completed," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. He said planning for a U.N. force would continue nonetheless.

This week Russia and China blocked a move in the UN to impose sanctions on four Sudanese officials blamed for the bloodshed in Darfur. Their excuse? They said "the time was not right for the sanctions in view of ongoing African Union-brokered Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria."

How cynical. China has billions invested in Sudan, and Sudan is China's largest overseas oil project. China even has troops there to protect its oil interests. China is more interested in its own economic interests than the plight of the helpless in the middle of Western Nowhere.

The world stood by and watched a slaughter in Rwanda, because who did those people matter to, really. The nations of the world seem prepared to do the same in Darfur.