As North America media focuses on US politics, the human toll in the Sudan is gaining world wide attention. 1 million people have suffered severe consequences from the fighting between rebels and the Arab militia.
NGO’s, private and UN relief agencies are trying to cope with the enormity of a million people, displaced in wars that havw been waged since Africa’s largest country achieved independence in 1956. Sudan is home to over 33 million people.
Sacha Westerbeek a UNICEF communications officer, keeps a diary of her experience and encounters in the Dafur region of Sudan.
The area we travel through reminds me a bit of the Oshana in Namibia: It is dry and desert-like. The big difference is the herds of camels that I see along the road. Although many of the villages are deserted I notice that there are many people ploughing the land.
Some of the people I speak with tell me that they are from Kailek. When I hear this I get goose bumps straight away. It was only this week that I learnt about Kailek, located some 64 km southwest of Kass. It has a terrible history.
What is going on in the Dafar region?
Afghanistan
Many reports acknowledge that two-thirds of the country and people of Afghanistan are back under Taleban styled militia rule
The country is rapidly becoming a narco-state, exporting 90% of the opium that goes to Europe, Russia and other parts of the world.
Nato and alliance partners have over 6 thousand troops on the ground, but most are centered in the capital of Kabul. As western countries attempt to address security in Iraq, Afghanistan’s government is asking NATO and the US to do more to reach into other areas of the country.
Published 4 years, 2 months agoTony Blair recently denied suggestions that Afghanistan had become a “forgotten” country amid complaints from some of the MPs on the committee who visited the country.
The MPs back Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s call for Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to be given more resources.
Conservative committee member Sir John Stanley told reporters that security in Afghanistan was “on a knife edge”.
Nato must answer President Karzai’s call for more help, he said, warning of the consequences of failure.
“We could end up with a situation that everything we have tried to achieve could be set back almost to square one,” added Sir John.
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Actually, the civil war in Sudan has claimed over two million lives over the the last twenty-one years. It’s a ridiculous “holy” war pitting the Muslim North against the rest of the countries pagan and Christian infidels. Of course, there’s more to it than just religion, but it’s funny how it breaks along those lines.
True…the civil war has.
I was focusing on the displacement from conflict in the Dafar region because the refugees are dying from disease, hunger, injuries.
There is a bit more involved in Dafar than Arab against African.
The toll is staggering.
Oh yeah, the Darfur thing is the pits too, for sure. And most Americans haven’t the foggiest idea that horrible injustices’re going on over there. I was fortunate enough to have the opporunity to proof-read and edit a research paper on the topic and found it both illuminating and disturbing (I even watched some of the U.S. Congressional hearings on the matter).