CAIRO — In a theory similar to what Khartoum has advocated for years, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon believes the Darfur conflict has its roots in water and food shortage caused by climate change.
"Almost invariably, we discuss Darfur in a convenient military and political shorthand -- an ethnic conflict pitting Arab militias against black rebels and farmers," Ban wrote in an editorial in The Washington Post on Saturday, June 16.
"Look to its roots, though, and you discover a more complex dynamic. Amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change."
Ban insisted that Arab nomadic herders and settled African farmers "lived amicably" for decades until rains in southern Sudan began to fail in recent years.
"It is no accident that the violence in Darfur erupted during the drought," maintained the UN chief.
"…once the rains stopped, farmers fenced their land for fear it would be ruined by the passing herds. For the first time in memory, there was no longer enough food and water for all. Fighting broke out. By 2003, it evolved into the full-fledged tragedy we witness today."
The four-year conflict in Darfur, a region the size of France, has killed at least 200,000 people and forced more than two million from their homes, according to the UN.
The Khartoum government has insisted that the Darfur conflict had its roots in competition between Arab nomads and non-Arab farmers over land and water resources in a changing ecosystem.
But the US-led West perceives the conflict as an ethnic cleansing by Arab Muslims against non-Arab, non-Muslim farmers.
Speedy Deployment
The UN chief stressed that any solution for the Darfur crisis must take into consideration the root cause of the conflict.
"Any peace in Darfur must be built on solutions that go to the root causes of the conflict," he wrote.
"Ultimately, however, any real solution to Darfur's troubles involves sustained economic development.
"There must be money for new roads and communications infrastructure, not to mention health, education, sanitation and social reconstruction programs."
A UN Security Council team arrived in Khartoum on Sunday, June 17, for talks with President Omar al-Beshir on the speedy deployment of UN-African Union peacekeeping forces.
Khartoum agreed last week on the deployment of a 23,000 joint peacekeeping forces.
There are currently around 7,000 AU peacekeepers in Darfur but they have been unable to halt the fighting because of a severe shortage of funding and equipment.
Air-borne Aid
The first flight of a French air bridge to ferry humanitarian aid to victims of the Darfur crisis touched down Sunday in Goz Beida town, is 90 kilometers from the Sudanese border.
"To start with, we will be transporting from N'Djamena priority items -- mats, water bottles, blankets and so forth -- that are sorely lacking as the rainy season nears," Colonel Jean-Bruno Vautrey, head of the French military in Chad, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
There are 40,000 of Darfur refugees along with two-thirds of the 150,000 Chadians displaced by communal and trans-border fighting are in the Dar Sila region that includes Goz Beida.
Vautrey said the air bridge would continue "so long as the state of the runway is not put in danger and there is a need to fulfill. Aid will be evaluated once a week."
Some 50 French military personnel are currently in Goz Beida.
The air bridge was announced earlier June by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner who stressed the "urgency" of the situation in the region with the onset of the rainy season.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed the air bridge, hoping it would "help avoid any critical gaps in our operation to feed thousands of people".
