After spending more than 40 days in Darfur over the course of six months and engaging in over 2,700 consultations with people across Darfur, the African Union Panel on Darfur has delivered its final report. Chaired by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, the Panel described Darfur as a “Sudanese crisis” and stated:

It [the crisis in Darfur] results from a legacy of the unequal distribution of power and wealth in Sudan, whereby peripheral regions, including Darfur, have been historically neglected. The war in Darfur cannot be resolved outside the context of a response to the wider challenges facing Sudan as a nation, of democratic transformation, of creating a new and equitable political and developmental dispensation, and of giving the best chance for national unity.

The report offered recommendations on a range of critical issues, including: establishing a roadmap to end the violence; offering compensation for individual and communal losses; strengthening the UN force in Darfur; and mobilizing Sudan’s neighbors to support the peace processes.

Addressing the difficult subject of justice and reconciliation, the Panel recommended forming a hybrid court with international and national judges and investigators.  This recommendation was intended to response to what it described as a polarized discussion of justice after the ICC arrest warrant for President Bashir. By including an international component, the Panel sought to alleviate concerns many Darfurians have about Sudan’s justice system, while also acknowledging that the government of Sudan has not recognized the ICC’s jurisdiction. Other mechanisms recommended include a truth, justice and reconciliation commission, reparations, and a plan for economic and social recovery.

Although the Panel sets a new standard for African leadership in resolving crises on the continent, the strength of this report will ultimately lie in its implementation. Meanwhile, signs of progress across the whole nation are being watched for carefully, as Sudan beings a month-long voter registration drive in a key step towards the April 2010 presidential elections, the first democratic elections in 24 years.

The final report of the African Union Panel on Darfur is available here.

On October 19, the Obama Administration unveiled a new strategy toward Sudan, which aims to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, as well as ensure the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The new policy promises to offer incentives if Khartoum makes progress and “increased pressure” if it does not.

They cited several critical lessons from past dealings with the government of Sudan:

• The United States cannot succeed in achieving our policy by focusing exclusively on Darfur or CPA implementation — both must be addressed seriously and simultaneously, while also working to resolve and prevent conflict throughout Sudan.
• United States policy must be agile enough to address discrete emergency crises, while maintaining a sustained focus on long-term stability.
• To advance peace and security in Sudan, we must engage with allies and with those with whom we disagree. United States diplomacy must be both sustained and broad, encompassing not just the National Congress Party, SPLM, and major Darfuri rebel groups but also critical regional and international actors.
• Assessments of progress and decisions regarding incentives and disincentives must not be based on process-related accomplishments (i.e., the signing of a MOU or the issuance of a set of visas), but rather based on verifiable changes in conditions on the ground.
• Accountability for genocide and atrocities is necessary for reconciliation and lasting peace.
• It must be clear to all parties that Sudanese support for counterterrorism objectives is valued, but cannot be used as a bargaining chip to evade responsibilities in Darfur or implementing the CPA.

And outlines what their priorities will be moving forward:

1. A definitive end to conflict, gross human rights abuses, and genocide in Darfur.
2. Implementation of the North-South CPA that results in a peaceful post-2011 Sudan, or an orderly path toward two separate and viable states at peace with each other.
3. Ensure that Sudan does not provide a safe haven for international terrorists.

To learn more, read coverage of the new strategy in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

With inter-ethnic clashes in South Sudan and the nation as a whole bracing itself for upcoming elections, the western region of Darfur has been reminded that the war is not over. In mid-September, attacks by the Sudan Armed Forces around Korma North Darfur were reported to have killed 16 civilians, wounded dozens more, and destroyed several villages. An estimated 2.7 million people still live in displaced persons camps in Darfur and 200,000 refugees remain in Chad, unable to return home for fear of precisely this kind of violence between the rebel groups and the Sudanese government.

Efforts to address the current situation in Sudan continued this month with an international conference on Sudan in Moscow, attended by the UN, AU, and League of Arab States. Peace talks on Darfur are set to resume by the end of October in Doha.

As international diplomatic attention focuses on Sudan’s approaching political deadlines, more incidents of violence have occurred in the South. On August 29, in the latest in a series of devastating clashes, a violent attack in Twic East County, Jonglei State resulted in the deaths of 42 people, many of them women and children, and displaced up to 24,000 people.

Although populations in the region have long suffered from cycles of violence, it is now clear that the nature of violence has changed.

Jonathan Whittall, head of the Medecins Sans Frontieres mission in South Sudan, explained that the August 29th attack represents a new development:

The violent clashes are different to the traditional ‘cattle rustling’ that normally occurs each year. Women and children, usually spared in this fighting, are now deliberately targeted and the number of deaths are higher than the number of wounded. In the last six violent incidents that MSF responded to in Jonglei and Upper Nile States over the last six months, official figures show that 1,057 people were killed in contrast to 259 wounded, with more than 60,000 displaced. This is new — the intention is to attack a village and to kill. The result is a population living in total fear, with significant humanitarian and medical needs.

Update: Burning buildings and attacking churchgoers, militiamen killed over a hundred people in a raid on the village of Duk Padiet in Jonglei State on September 20. Southerners have accused Khartoum of arming rival tribes in the region, although the government denies the claim.

As Sudan moves closer to making significant political choices in the near future (national elections in April 2010 and a referendum on southern independence in 2011), international efforts to establish firm peace agreements in Darfur and southern Sudan have accelerated.

Dedicated to addressing matters of peace, justice, and reconciliation in Darfur, the African Union Panel on Darfur, chaired by President Thabo Mbeki, plans to release its recommendations to Sudan and the African Union at the end of September.  Meanwhile, Scott Gration, President Obama’s Special Envoy to Sudan, is returning to the region this week to continue facilitating bilateral negotiations between the SPLM and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) that focus on achieving a full implementation of the CPA.  These discussions will concentrate on resolving two contentious issues in the CPA: the use of the census results and an agreement on technical provisions regarding the 2011 referendum.  In August, Gration witnessed the initial signing of the bilateral agreement.

Gration will also travel to Darfur to visit IDP camps in an effort to assess the humanitarian situation since the NGO explusions and to meet with Darfur women leaders to discuss programs aimed at addressing gender-based violence.