Not quite the World Cup Trophy.

I bet the last thing you heard from Africa was who won the World Cup.  Al-Jazeera reports on the violence that has been ramping up in Sudan after peace talks were suspended.

“Nearly 400 people have been killed in recent clashes between the Sudanese army and Darfur’s main rebel group, according to Sudanese state media.

Most of the people killed – more than 300 – were members of the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem).”

The UN is on the scene but is sounds like they are fighting a 5 alarm fire with a squirt gun.

“United Nations peacekeepers in Darfur confirmed that there were at least two major clashes between the two sides.The under-equipped peacekeepers, with a mandate to cover an area the size of Spain, said they were also investigating reports of a third clash in Daba Tago, near the north Darfur settlement of Mellit.”

Yep, we can continue to ruin Afghanistan and Iraq to the tune of billions of dollars per day, and yet we cannot even keep more than a laughable presence in the Sudan.  I am actually quite surprised as Sudan has OIL which makes it much more likely be on Western foreign policy radars.

“Darfur, which is about the same size as France, has been gripped by civil war since ethnic minority rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated government and their supporters in 2003.”

I guess we need to call Bono back into the fray, because it seems unless altruism and empathy are fronted by a rock band, things just do not get done.