Recently there was a peace deal in Darfur. This is hardly the end of the crisis though I imagine it will be sufficient for the mainstream American media to ignore the situation once again.
It is truly mind boggling the focus on the supposed immigration crisis in the United States (why now?) given the very immediate and very real humanitarian disaster going on in Sudan. There is nothing logical or humane about ignoring what has been the biggest crisis on the planet in the last two years. It's simply that "they" don't matter.
A couple of relevant comments regarding Darfur.
“I first spoke to the UN Security Council on Darfur two years ago, calling it ethnic cleansing of the worst kind. Today, I could simply hit the rewind button on much of that earlier briefing. The world’s largest aid effort now hangs in the balance, unsustainable under present conditions. If we are to avoid an imminent, massive loss of life, we need immediate action---from the Government of Sudan, the rebels, UN Security Council members and donor governments.” (May 5, 2006)
-Jan Egeland (UN official)
Part 1 of this mortality assessment (April 28, 2006), surveying all relevant extant data, concludes that since the outbreak of major conflict in Darfur (February 2003), over 450,000 people have died from violence, disease, and malnutrition (see Quantifying Genocide in Darfur: April 28, 2006 (Part 1) ). Moreover, despite the “peace agreement” reached in Abuja (Nigeria) last week, there is little reason to believe that the current mortality rate for disease and malnutrition (based on UN data) will decline from a level of almost 7,000 deaths per month (see Part 1). Indeed, this rate will likely soon rise dramatically: such a conclusion seems inevitable in light of a wide range of humanitarian indicators (including rising acute malnutrition rates), insecurity that paralyzes many aid operations, and general debilitation within a conflict-affected population that reaches to almost 4 million in Darfur and eastern Chad. Violent mortality will also explode upwards if no robust international force deploys to Darfur in order to protect civilians and humanitarian operations.
(via altercation and Jeff Weintraub)
Don't forget them.
Comments