Tag Archives: South Sudan

A Little Bit of Sunshine

It seems as if the forces of the universe realized things were getting a bit heavy and decided to shoot a little bit of good news my way.  Conditions seem to be stabilizing enough in the Darfur region of Sudan for refugees to begin returning home.   François Reybet-Degat, the current head of the United Nations refugee office in Sudan, says that more than 100,000 people have returned home to several different areas in Darfur.  Abdallah Mohamed Abubakir, a farmer, just brought his family back to Nyuru, a village in the area. “Things aren’t great,” he said, “but they’re getting better.”  His village now has a new 6 room school – grass-walled though it may be – and a police station.  An Islamic charity has built the village a large tent hospital as well.  In the background of these humble advances are smashed houses and piles of ash – the not-too-subtle reminders that many people were killed here.

Aid agencies seeking to encourage this recent trend are changing their approach.  By shifting the focus from emergency relief and increasing funding for “recovery” they hope to encourage more people to return home.   The “recovery” effort supplies the people returning home with wells, seeds, plows, and workshops to make plows.  The goal is to prevent refugee camps from becoming permanent slums by enticing villagers to return home to improved conditions.

While the return of some 100,000+ villagers to their homes is most certainly a good sign, it should be seen as a sign to press on not to call it day.  Prayers, aid, and advocacy have finally yielded results in an area that has been subject to terrible violence for 9 years.  The exact same thing is now happening in Nuba region of Sudan.  Hopefully, the world will acknowledge the atrocities being done here faster than they acknowledged the violence in Darfur.  There is hope that the Nuban people will not have to suffer as long as the Darfuri’s did.

There is an American Christian, Ryan Boyette, who is risking his life daily to document the crimes being committed against the Nuban people.  He is the man who smuggled reporter Nicholas D. Kristof across the border from South Sudan into Sudan, so that world could see what was happening.   Boyette is launching a citizen reporting initiative in March called Eyes and Ears Nuba.  Pray for the continued safety of Boyette and his family.  He is being targeted by the government of Sudan with bombs and spies.

The change in Darfur is a sign that peace can be achieved and hope is there for people in war-torn areas – it should be very encouraging.  By praying and spreading the word about things like what is going on in the Nuba mountains we are able to give hope and affect change in the lives of some the most vulnerable and helpless people in the world.   It took people too long to see what was happening in Darfur, and in that time hundreds of lives were lost.

Update: Children Becoming the Targets of Ethnic Cleansing

Today, Nicholas Kristof, columnist for the New York Times, published a second article about his experience in the Nuba region of Sudan.  It is accompanied by a short video of the people he interviewed, and things he experienced.  It includes his interview with families living in caves being interrupted by an Antonov bomber flying overhead.

The video shows clearly the atrocities that government of Sudan is committing against innocent women and children.  As foreign journalists and aid agencies are barred from the country, Kristof’s work is one of a very few instances when the outside world can see firsthand what is being done.  Please view the video, read his work, and share it.  Help spread the word about the situation in Nuba, and pray for the families there.  They are innocent, and their children are innocent.

Starvation as a Weapon

Most people will agree that, “drought is natural, but famine is man-made”. Famine results from a lack of national, and international support and preparedness, and at this stage in global development it should never happen.  But, what is completely unacceptable is when famine is opposed on a people as a form of oppression and as a weapon of war.  It embodies the lowest forms of cruelty because targets civilians, primarily women, children, and the elderly.  The international community, Christians most of all, should be outraged by it.

It is precisely this tactic, among various forms of terrorism that target civilians, that the government in Khartoum, Sudan is employing against it’s people.  The government has been blocking international humanitarian aid from getting to it’s people. The “aid embargo”, and the government sponsored ethnic militias – the “Janjaweed” – who are destroying all sources of food in villages, are creating a massive food crisis.

Families are not only fleeing violence, but also imposed hunger as their crops are burned to the ground and livestock shot. Mothers are having to leave infants in their cribs, in favor of older, stronger children who need less to survive.

Enough international pressure was used a few years ago to embarrass the Khartoum government into letting the UN into Sudan to distribute aid.  More pressure is necessary now, to allow other agency to assist the UN. The famine is not “full-scale”, yet.  That doesn’t make the situation any less desperate, though.  Anytime children are going to bed hungry, and suffering the physical effects of hunger, disease and malnutrition worst of all, the situation is urgent.

Now is the time for Christians to press our government to support the UN and other organizations, as they try to help the victims of on-going genocide in Sudan. President Obama has done a lot for Sudan/South Sudan area, but the fight is not over yet.  President Obama has also been determined since he was voted into office to have as open forum with public as possible.  As a result you can call or write the White House, and tell President Obama that you appreciate the job he has done so far (or feel like he could have done more, but keep in mind that unnecessary and personal comments can undermine your suggestions), but that his job isn’t done yet.  That he, and the rest of international community, can continue to put pressure on the government in Sudan to allow aid to go to it’s innocent civilians.  You can be sure that you’re comments will be heard.

Share information about the enforced famine in Sudan, those suffering should not suffer in the dark.  The entire world should be aware of what is being done to them. It is by the outraged caused by their situation that their oppressive government can be forced to allow them aid.  Please do not forget to pray for those suffering in Sudan.  Many times prayer, like the tools of democracy, is ignored because we feel like it doesn’t accomplish anything.  I believe that faithful prayer can move mountains, and save lives – certainly innocent, helpless lives – if we just take the time to do it.

Darfur, Sudan, and South Sudan

Let’s start from the beginning.

Darfur is a region the size of Texas in the west of Sudan.

Darfur region of Sudan

The country of Sudan is located in the north east of Africa where, because of it’s proximity to the Arabian peninsula, the population is a mix of ethnic Arabians and Africans. Its capital is Khartoum.

Sudan is separated from the Arabian Peninsula by the Red Sea

Sudan has been plagued by civil wars since before it gained its independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956 – its history is a long and complicated one.  Since 2003, the government of Sudan and the Arab militias they support have been conducting a “scorched-earth” campaign aimed at the black African population living in Darfur.  The goal was to squash a rebellion led by the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLA) and later the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) against the wealthy and oppressive government.  The Sudanese government enlisted some of the nomadic Arab tribes to be their militias, ensuring their cooperation by offering them land and exploiting concerns about their livelihood.  By doing this, it “Arabized” the conflict, making it a matter of race between the tribal groups.

The Arab militias – the self-named “Janjaweed” or ‘”Devil on Horseback” – have been utilizing racial supremacy ideologies to justify wiping entire villages, destroying water and food supplies, and systematically murdering, torturing, and raping hundreds of thousands of Darfuri civilians.

Through direct violence, disease, and starvation, this action by the government has already claimed as many as 300,000 lives and has caused about 2.3 millions Darfuris to flee their homes and communities. The internally displaced persons (IDPs) now reside in a network of IDP camps within Darfur.  Some of those fleeing the conflict have gone to neighboring Chad and live in refugee camps there.  The IDP’s and refugees are completely dependent on the UN and other humanitarian organizations for their food, water, shelter, and health care, and are vulnerable to attack, murder and rape.

In 2004, both Houses of the US Congress agreed in a unanimous vote that “the atrocities unfolding in Darfur, Sudan are genocide.” The UN has indicted Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity which include murder, torture and attacks against civilian populations, but the country refuses to turn him over to the International Criminal Court.

Since the separation of Sudan into two countries, Sudan and South Sudan, on July 9, 2011, nothing has changed for Darfur.

Sudan and South Sudan, with Darfur highlighted

In fact, since the succession the border of the two countries has become another conflict zone. The government of Sudan has taken aggressive military actions against civilians in the border towns of South Kordofan and Abyei and displaced over 200,000 people.

It has been said that America stood back and watched the 1994 genocide occur in Rwanda, and that country is still recovering.  The genocide in Sudan has been continuing unchecked since 2005. What our role is as a country may or may not be so black and white as it seems.  Our role as individuals is.  An entire group of people is being targeted and brutally murdered because of the color of their skin.  Children are being raped and murdered, infants crushed or shot-through in their mothers arms. Kids are starving to death as they walk with their families to find food, water, and shelter after the Janjaweed bomb their homes to the ground. These people are innocent, and God’s heart is broken by this.

Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  Pure evil is running unabated and destroying millions of lives, and the echoes of the damage done will be heard for generations. Any time there are innocent lives being violently and unnecessarily ended, Christians should be the loudest voices of protest.  It doesn’t matter where people live, their nationality, race, or religion – Jesus commanded us to love with same full and sacrificial love He loved us with. I believe anything less is a sin, and to ignore a genocide out of comfort or convenience certainly is.

The easiest way to help bring an end to this crisis is to support one of the organizations actively fighting to end it, like Enough, or the Satellite Sentinel Project.  Obviously, they would love your donations, but following them on Twitter, “Liking” them on Facebook, and subscribing and sharing their email newsletters is a great start.  They occasionally send out important and time sensitive updates that allow you to take a part in some of the policy making in our country, it’s a wonderful opportunity to make sure that issues that are important get the appropriate attention. Also, exercise your rights as a citizen in a democracy, call the president and let him know how you feel about the situation – it makes a difference, he listens.  Write emails, or better, hand-write letters, to your representatives telling them what you think they should be doing about Darfur.  How should they know what we want them to do if we don’t tell them? But they do work for us – we voted them in, we can vote them out if they choose to ignore us.

Above all, continue to pray for God’s will to be done in Darfur, Sudan and South Sudan, that the senseless deaths of innocent people can be brought to an end, and that His comforting Spirit be with those who are suffering and struggling. Whether or not they know Him, I believe His heart is broken anytime an innocent person is suffering from evil. With prayer, who knows how many people will come to know Him through this and find true joy because of it?