Sudan Denied AU Seat Over Darfur

There is some justice in the world (just a wee bit - these are international organizations with little actual power after all). Sudan was denied the chairmanship of the African Union, mostly because the Sudanese government continues to flaunt international organizations seeking to bring the Darfur genocide/ethnic cleansing to an end. The post went to a Ghanaian instead.

Sudan lost its bid to assume the rotating leadership of the African Union to Ghana on Monday after regional leaders snubbed Khartoum for a second time because of international outrage over bloodshed in Darfur.

Alpha Oumar Konare, the AU's top diplomat, told reporters Ghanaian President John Kufuor would take the post of AU chairman. "By consensus it is President Kufuor."

He said Sudan had supported the decision, which avoided a damaging dispute that would have eclipsed the main summit agenda, including raising peacekeeping troops for Somalia.

There's still the not insignificant task of dealing with the peacekeeping situation in Darfur. The AU has been trying to shift the peacekeeping to the UN, but Sudan has been blocking nearly all efforts to interpose peacekeepers in the region. That's on top of the fact that the Sudanese government has been in cahoots with the janjaweed who have perpetrated much of the violence in the region.