Salon.com > Sudan

Qatar donates $500 million to war-ravaged Darfur

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:25:00 +0000

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Qatar is pledging $500 million to help rebuild Sudan's war-battered region of Darfur as part of an international conference seeking ways to boost stability after a decade of violence.

Monday's promise follows Qatar's drive to strengthen peace efforts brokered by the Gulf nation two years ago. The official Qatar News Agency said Darfur funding pledge opened a donors' conference in the capital, Doha.

Darfur has been gripped by bloodshed since 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum. Fighting also erupts between tribes.

Sudan's leader Omar al-Bashir is accused of genocide and war crimes by the International Criminal Court for attacks in Darfur.

On Sunday, Britain pledged $102 million to Sudan over three years, with about half going to Darfur.

Must-see morning clip: Sudanese refugee says Americans take freedom for granted

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:14:00 +0000

When "60 Minutes'" Bob Simon asks Sudanese refugee Abraham Yel Nhial, "What do you like most about America?" his answer is immediate: "Freedom."

"Americans take things for granted, but the freedom we have here--it's what the whole world wants to have," says Nhial.

Sudan blames Israel for Khartoum explosion

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 23:08:00 +0000

The Sudanese government on Wednesday accused Israel of carrying out an air strike on an arms factory in Khartoum, following explosions which killed two people.

Sudanese Culture and Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman said four Israeli planes had attacked the factory, according to the BBC.

Israel's defense and foreign ministry declined to comment, Reuters said.

"Sudan reserves the right to strike back at Israel," said Osman, claiming that rocket debris and other material on the site showed Israel was involved.

BBC correspondents said Israel believes that weapons are being smuggled through Sudan to Gaza, and leaked documents from the US State Department three years ago suggested that Sudan was supplying arms to Hamas.

Embattled Greeks lash out at migrants

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:55:00 +0000

ATHENS, Greece — Mukhtar Jama sold the land he owned in the Somalian capital Mogadishu after deciding he had no future in his shattered, war-torn homeland. The $1,500 he earned went to paying a smuggler to get him to Europe.

The lanky, bespectacled 23-year-old trekked through rough terrain, sometimes with nothing but sugar water to sustain him during the two-month journey. He reached his destination when he crossed the muddy Evros River dividing Turkey from Greece.

Or so he believed. “I thought I’d find a better life,” he said in central Athens. “You can enter Europe, but you can’t really enter.”

Jama is one of hundreds of thousands of migrants who have crossed into Greece only to find themselves confronted by a dismal intersection of two unfolding crises. A decade of catastrophic economic decline and political upheaval together with Greece's role as the prime gateway to the European Union are helping fuel a wave of racism and violence.