Darfur Meltdown

The UN has announced its cutting its aid budget to Darfur in half. Its stated reason? The area has gotten so dangerous that UN workers can't utilize most of the resources at their disposal. To me, that's an excellent tip-off that hey, maybe the time has past for just sending in aid workers, and it's time to send in some blue helmets instead. But alas, that appears not be the case.

The AU has just extended its mission in Sudan so that there still might be some troops (ill-equipped and undermanned as they are) in Darfur while the UN and other international actors continue to delay sending in their own forces. Sudan has vigorously opposed any UN intervention, going as far as to threaten terrorist strikes if UN boots hit the ground in Darfur. It's a vicious cycle--the AU knows that it is in way over it's head and wants the UN to relieve it, but the UN desparately wants to avoid any tangible action and thus wants to act as if the AU mission is succeeding.

But it's not all bad news! Check out this offer by the Sudanese government:

Sudan said earlier Friday it would reinforce African Union troops in Darfur with 10,000 men, half of them Sudanese armed forces and half former southern Sudanese rebel SPLA soldiers who have been integrated into the Sudanese army.

Reinforce or "reinforce"? I'm sure the Darfur refugees feel safer already, with at least 5,000 troops from the government dedicated to their extermination arriving on the scene.

It would be funny if it weren't so genocidal.