Josey M.'s Take on Sudan

Letter to Albuquerque Journal

The recent relocation of a close friend has made me develop a better education on the issues in Sudan.

It has come to my attention that problems in Sudan must be solved to protect not only Sudan citizens but missionaries and other volunteers from the U.S. The entire U.S. must be educated on this tragic topic.

Sudan is Africa’s largest country and has been at war almost non-stop since their independence in 1956. After years of diplomatic work, a peace deal was completed in May of 2004.

Participants in this deal included the main southern rebel group in Sudan, the ethnic African Sudan People’s Liberation Army, and the Arab-dominated Khartoum Sudan People’s Liberation Army government.

A huge problem is in the city of Darfur on the internal border of Sudan next to Chad. Approximately one million people in this area are now homeless because of almost constant fighting between African rebels and Arab militia.

Africans blame the Arab militia for being involved in systematic killing, rape, and looting. An estimated 150,000 of the one million homeless have fled to Chad, seeking shelter and food.

Aid agencies are having trouble getting to the ones in need to bring them supplies. The situation keeps getting more and more dangerous for all involved.

The angered Darfarians rebelled because they felt excluded from the talks of the SPLA(their government) gave.

Talks were occurred much more often in Naivasha, Kenya. The growing rebellion of the SPLA in general and the exclusion was too much. The bubble popped and the Darfarians actively rebelled against their government.

The growing problems in the city of Darfur, and Sudan in general, are causing the need for more volunteers and help.

This issue is getting so messy that UN officials are calling Darfur “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.” Sudan is getting bad enough that many are claiming the inability of the rest of the world to act is like the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

As problems in south Sudan are coming to a close problems in the west are at an all time high. Many solutions have been considered.

The most popular idea is that SPLA-Khartoum and the UN Security Council should work together to make a bigger peace treaty to supplement the one put into place this last year.

This treaty would be meant to help other problems, such as Darfur. This idea was quickly killed by one word. Expensive. That’s right, the price of hosting this kind of treaty would cost several million dollars.

This helpless, seemingly hopeless situation is getting worse.

This is why the U.S. must be educated on Sudan’s problems if there is to be hope, any hope at all, to resolve these horrible problems. Listen. Learn. And help this growing massacre end.

This cite was used in the writing of this article:

Doyle, Mark. “Sudan: Big Country, big problems”. BBS news. June, 10, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3795269.stm