Today in the Swat Valley within 100 miles of the Pakistani capital city of Islamabad, at least 41 people were killed. Today’s incident came as the Taliban claimed responsibility for a separate weekend attack on a Pakistani army facility that killed dozens more.

Should the United States send even more money to Pakistan to try to quell the violence there?

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Past aid distribution in Darfur. Photo: United Nations

Sudan has agreed to allow aid agencies to return to the violence-ridden Darfur region, a move that received praise from the United Nations.

However, Sudan’s minister of humanitarian affairs said the 13 aid agencies that were expelled in March — after the International Criminal Court ordered the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir – will not be allowed back.

Rob Crilly is a freelance journalist based in Nairobi who has written for The Times, The Irish Times, The Daily Mail, The Scotsman and The Christian Science Monitor. Crilly’s blog “African Safari“ appears on the blog network “From the Frontline,” where he criticizes the arrangment.

Aiding and Abetting Khartoum

So you are an NGO recently expelled from Darfur. Over the years the government in Khartoum restricted your operations in the field, kicked out your country director and a security officer, whom the regime accused of being a Mossad agent. Then, just when you are wondering how you can ever actually help the millions of people that depend on your aid, the government expels you altogether. Overnight your operation is shut down, cars impounded and computers seized. Hundreds of Sudanese staff lose their jobs at a stroke and your international workers are treated as criminals as they are put on flights out.

Not all your staff can leave though. One or two have to stay behind to shut things down and help the government take all the good bits of kit. The government also demands you pay six months wages to the local staff. It is made crystal clear that the internationals left behind will not be allowed to leave until millions of dollars in “severance pay” is handed to the government. The internationals are effectively hostages held for ransom. They have at least got their passports back - but no exit visa. They are trapped.

Would you, given these circumstances, ever consider returning to a country that has done all this? Particularly if the deal essentially involved you changing your name thus admitting that you were at fault? Would you want to scale all your operations back up, invest millions of dollars, knowing that Khartoum can kick you out again whenever they fancy?

This is essentially the position Care, and three other American agencies find themselves in. I understand that the IRC, Oxfam and MSF have heard that they will never again be welcome in Sudan. (In some ways that is to the agencies’ credit). But the other agencies have got Scott Gration, Barack Obama’s new Sudan envoy, to thank for one of the most pathetic, weakminded deals I have ever encountered.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

A van carrying aid in Gaza City.

More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s 22-day Gaza offensive, and around 80 percent of Palestinians are reliant on aid.

The Israeli government does allow aid shipments into Gaza, but fears that opening the borders would allow Hamas to bring weapons into the area. U.N. aid workers in the Gaza Strip have asked Israel to ease restrictions on aid.

Michael Robin Bailey of the humanitarian group Oxfam describes their aid operation and the dangers faced by aid workers:

A truckload of Pampers is driven into the Kerem Shalom crossing ahead of us. One consignment of 36 wooden pallets piled to a height of 160 cm. Not enough to meet the household needs in Gaza where 170 babies are born every day. “We have seen a lot of Pampers and toilet rolls recently,” confides the Israeli army major who is assigned to liaise with the humanitarian community. Also macaroni and spaghetti now that they have been approved at the political level of the Israeli administration.

I am here with 13 colleagues from the humanitarian community, three middle ranking Israeli soldiers and the manager of Kerem Shalom. 20 adults earnestly discussing baby nappies and the security significance of pasta. Meanwhile inside Gaza 8,000 families are waiting for the materials to rebuild the homes that were destroyed nearly three months ago.

[...]Kerem Shalom’s operations manager says his main aim is getting humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza. However, he always gives priority to security, “If there is any danger for people, I will close the crossing immediately.” He describes how his operation is hemmed in. On one side, by problems getting his Palestinian workers to work on time, “Hamas is controlling everything, they hold up the workers coming from Gaza.” On the other hand he is ordered to manage up to 150 trucks a day although he says he could handle 400 or 500. “It depends on the policy.” Since June 2007, the Israeli government policy is that nothing other than humanitarian aid goes into Gaza.

Blogger Mona El-Farra, a physician living in the Gaza Strip, argues that civilians are paying the price:

It is dispropotional open war , civilians pay the price. [...]on my way walking to the Red Crescent Society , (i donot have fuel in my car ), it is only 25 mintues , while walking , i can cleary hear successive explosions, from diffrent parts of the city , and the drune on the sky , and also can clearly see the security forces soldiers, outside thier headquarters , as it is under threat of bombing by the israeli military forces ,

i had to walk very fast , expecting the worse , arriving my work to find out that we do not have enough fuel for the ambulance and the other work vehicles.

no fuel entered Gaza since 17 days , our storage has been exhausted , oh my god this situation will have its disasterous impact on different health facilities .

Medical workers as always work under great pressure , and while i am trying to arrange for medical shipment entry to Gaza , donated by MECA , i endure living in such dangerous situation , and lack of electricity , we have scarce power 6- 8 hours daily at the moment ,fresh and clean pumped water is big problem for most residents of Gaza

An Israeli blogger, “Alain,” replies to her post, placing the blame on Hamas:

Civilians pay the price, I agree (what about civilians in Sderot?), but maybe you should ask the Hamas to give answers. You can always blame Israel. As long as Hamas Fires missiles, Israel will respond and the international opinion will support it.

Maybe the people of gaza should ask the Hamas to behave like a government and not like a terrorist entity.

I know there are a lot of civilians like you that are longing for a real peace like a lot of israelis like me.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

U.S. special envoy George Mitchell has begun a two-week trip to a number of Middle East and north African countries, including Egypt.

Jon Alterman is director and senior fellow of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. He writes at “World Politics Review” about the changing relationship between the United States and Egypt, arguing that relations have been damaged over the past several years and need rebuilding.

U.S.-Egypt: The Magic is Gone

It’s no secret that the U.S.-Egyptian relationship is ailing. As his term went on, President George W. Bush seemed to go to Egypt principally to deliver stern lectures. After years of visiting Washington every spring, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stopped coming to Washington at all. Despite — or perhaps because of — $2 billion per year changing hands, the mutual resentment has become palpable.

The hostility among the two leaders reflects a deeper divide between their governments and even among peoples. More than three decades after U.S. and Egyptian presidents together changed the landscape of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the U.S.-Egyptian relationship has grown stale. Egyptians feel unappreciated, and they complain that they have sold off their foreign policy for meager reward. Americans feel that their aid has been taken for granted, and they are embarrassed that so close an ally has such a checkered record in treating its own people. Although the two sides continue to cooperate on a wide array of shared interests, the amount that is done out of goodwill continues to dwindle.

The relationship has been drifting downward for years, and it can drift downward still. Yet the way in which the relationship continues to disappoint expectations is corrosive. It makes even things that Americans and Egyptians agree upon harder to accomplish, and that exacerbates differences. Both countries have an interest in redefining the relationship, in one of two ways.

One option is to reinvigorate the relationship by giving it a renewed sense of purpose. The modern Egyptian-American relationship was forged in the depths of the Cold War when Egypt pivoted out of the Soviet embrace, aligned itself with the United States, and defied the Arab consensus by making peace with Israel. The consequences of Egyptian policy were truly strategic not only for Egypt, but also for the United States. Egypt was a clear regional leader, and its actions helped reshape the Middle East.

Now, there is no grand project that the two countries share. With no Cold War, a much less defiant Arab consensus, and Arab governments’ grudging acceptance of Israel in the Middle East, Egypt is harder pressed to play the role of a vanguard, while the United States is less in need of one. Today’s geopolitics lend themselves to small and incremental moves rather than bold strokes. Egypt’s help fighting the “small wars” of the twenty-first century, for example, is important but probably insufficient to be truly strategic. In other areas where the United States has an interest, Egypt is not the most likely agent of change. It is hard to imagine Egypt leading an economic transition in the Middle East, and its political culture does not lend itself toward dramatic shifts in politics and governance.

None of this is to suggest that a grand project cannot be found, only that one is not evident. But what is clear is that the current relationship is predicated on having a grand project, and the absence of such a project makes the relationship hollow.

The other option is for both Egypt and the United States to agree that the current relationship has outlived its usefulness, and the time has come for both countries to invest in diversifying their relationships in the Middle East and around the world.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user World Economic Forum under a Creative Commons license.

Strikes resumed, as did Hamas rockets, after the pause.

Bernard Barrett of the International Committee of the Red Cross joins Martin Savidge to discuss the effectiveness of aid in Gaza, the state of hospitals there and how the ground invasion has impacted the ability of humanitarian organizations to operate.

AUDIO: Dele Olojede, a Nigerian journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner and former foreign editor of Newsday, joins Martin Savidge from Lagos, Nigeria, to discuss Robert Mugabe’s situation, the role of other African nations in Zimbabwe and the country’s future.

The cholera crisis in Zimbabwe prompted President Robert Mugabe to give his own assessment of the outbreak, claiming there was ”no cholera.” 

The United Nations reports more than 16,000 cases of cholera and almost 800 deaths.

Mugabe also launched a counterattack against world leaders and those who say he should resign or be removed. 

Read more about the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe and calls for Mugabe to step down in our previous Blogwatches.

AUDIO: Manuel Lopez, head of a Doctors Without Borders mission in Zimbabwe, joins Martin Savidge from Harare to discuss the spread of the disease, Zimbabwe’s health sector and efforts to end the epidemic.

The situation in Zimbabwe continues to collapse, and international aid workers are struggling to provide even the most basic medical care to tens of thousands of people.

At least 775 have now died due to the country’s outbreak of cholera, and another 16,141 are infected. Some have sought treatment in neighboring countries, and the disease has spread to South Africa.

Read more about the cholera epidemic and political strife in Zimbabwe in our previous Blogwatches.