Protect the People of Darfur

It has been a year since the U.N. Security Council authorized the UNAMID peacekeeping force for Darfur and promised to deploy 17,000 additional troops to protect the people of Darfur.

In the last year, barely 2,000 additional troops have so far reached Darfur. This failure to act is simply unaccepatable.

The people of Darfur need protection more than ever. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court issued formal charges against Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir for genocide, which may cause him to take his vengeance out on Darfuris.

Meanwhile, the BBC uncovered concrete evidence that weapons from China - a permanent member of the Security Council - are being used in Darfur in violation of a U.N. arms embargo.

It has never been clearer that the member states of the U.N. Security Council need to muster the political will to deploy peacekeepers to Darfur.

Click here to urge the Permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to fulfill their promise to the people of Darfur.

Check out the resources below to learn what the U.S. and the U.N. can do to help deploy peacekeepers to protect the people of Darfur.

Peacekeepers for Darfur

• Putting People First: The Protection Challenge Facing UNAMID in Darfur. A report from the Darfur Consortium
• UNAMID Fact Sheet
• What's at Stake?
• Keeping our Word: Fulfilling our Mandate to Protect Civilians in Darfur

Resources Required

• Grounded: The International Community's Betrayal of UNAMID. A joint NGO report identifying countries that can provide helicopters for UNAMID.
• UNAMID Helicopters Fact Sheet
• No Helicopoters for Darfur, by Ken Bacon
• Helicopters for Darfur, an editorial in the Los Angeles Times

What we're doing to help protect Darfuri civilians

• Save Darfur Coalition's letter to the UN Security Council
• Take Action: Urge the U.N. Security Council to deploy peacekeepers to Darfur.

Other resources

• U.N. Secretary-General's report to the U.N. Security Council on the deployment of peacekeeping forces for Darfur (155K PDF)
• Information on May 10 rebel attack on Khartoum