CONTINENT IN DANGER AFRICAN PLIGHT

EDITORIAL

CONTINENT IN DANGER
AFRICAN PLIGHT

Since Sept. 11, most of the world’s attention has been fixed on the Middle East, where Israelis and the Palestinians have been warring, and where the U.S. and its allies have been attacking terrorism.
Those subjects are certainly worthy of single-minded notice, but meanwhile another horrific situation has been developing, this one in the African nation of Sudan. There, according to an official of Catholic Relief Services, an “urgent and deteriorating” situation has put nearly two million lives at risk from famine, disease and war. (CRS is the overseas aid agency of American Catholics.)
The official, Paul Townsend, testified recently before the African affairs subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about Sudan’s plight, which he termed “the most desperate humanitarian disaster on our planet.” Catholic News Services succinctly summed up the Sudan situation by describing the nation as “famine-scarred and mired in an 18-year civil war involving religion, ethnicity, oil and ideology.” As many as two million people may have already been killed in the ongoing fighting. “The vast majority of [those] casualties have been non-combatants who died of famine and health-related causes,” Townsend said.
The world has tried to help Sudan by dispatching humanitarian aid. What complicates the desperate situation is the misappropriation of or failure to deliver that aid by Sudan’s own government. Townsend told the Senate committee that the first step to resolving the crisis there is to ensure that humanitarian assistance is “clearly linked to negotiations that occur between the U.S. and the government in Khartoum....U.S., U.N., and donor governments must assure unimpeded humanitarian access to all the at-risk populations.”
Next, “corporations and governments invo10
lved in the Sudanese oil market must be made to take responsibility for stopping the impact these activities have in escalating the war, limiting humanitarian access and ultimately contributing to this loss of innocent life.”
Another step toward stability, Townsend said, is reinforcing “the right of the people of Sudan to determine for themselves how their government and society must be upheld.”
Finally, linking one area of world conflict — the war on terrorism — with another, he asked: “How can the Khartoum government be applauded in efforts for counter-terrorism internationally when they’re carrying out terrorism in their own boundaries?”
Sudan’s horror is a huge issue that can legitimately leave ordinary individuals feeling helpless. However, there are two things we can do: pray for guidance and help from God, not for us but for those involved in resolving the crisis; and contact our U.S. senators to indicate our interest in a quick and life-saving solution to the Sudan situation.

(07-18-02)