The clock is now ticking...

Reuters reports the following:

"The U.N. Security Council has voted for a U.S.-drafted resolution that threatens to impose sanctions on Sudan in 30 days if it does not disarm and prosecute marauding militia in Darfur.

The 13-0 vote, with abstentions from China and Pakistan, came after the United States deleted the word 'sanctions' and substituted a reference to a section of the U.N. Charter permitting punitive measures to gain more support.

The Article 41 provision allows the 'interruption' of economic, transport, communications or diplomatic measures, which amounts to sanctions."

It's good that the clock is finally ticking, but with 1,000 people dying every day, 30,000 people could be dead before the U.N. seriously considers further action. The African Union seems to get that a little better than the U.N. "The A.U. is preparing to deploy a force to protect its military observers and ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid," and the 13 African leaders meeting in Ghana today agreed to significantly expand that force. But even if the A.U. can get aid through, the international community is still failing to answer the call for donations. When the government of Sudan uses bureaucratic minutia to block or slow aid shipments, it has blood on its hands, so it's utterly appalling that the wealthy nations of the world still haven't come up with the full amount of aid the U.N. has requested. Worse still, it suddenly looks like the plague of locusts (that's right -- locusts) sweeping across Africa is going to hit Sudan and exacerbate the situation.

This article by Fidele Lumeya, Shannon Meehan, and Daniel Wolf, of Refugees International and the George Wolf Operating Foundation, gives a good rundown of the current humanitarian situation.