Darfur, Qaddafi and the United Nations

While Colonel Qaddafi is in the U.S. casting a shadow over the U.N. this week, the people of Darfur can place no hope in the Libyan leader's words - they know they are empty. As Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust in front of the U.N. assembly, Qaddafi pretends the situation in Darfur has nothing to do with him. Two peas in a pod, each having an exceedingly difficult time finding a hotel which will accommodate them in New York City while visiting the U.N.

Since 2004, Catholic Relief Services has been providing humanitarian relief despite enormous security risks. According to the CRS website:

Key activities include:

• food distribution to more than 150,000 people each month
• shelter assistance for displaced families
• distribution of essential household items
• educational projects including classroom construction and teacher training
• agricultural support through seed and tool fairs
• livestock health initiatives
• health and nutrition education
• extensive water and sanitation projects, including construction of water systems, latrines and hand-washing facilities

CRS provides this relief assistance in El Geneina and up the 85-mile corridor running north to Kulbus. Across the border in eastern Chad, CRS also works with a local Church partner, Secours Catholique et Developpement (Catholic Relief and Development), to manage three camps in Farchana, Kounoungou and Milé that are home to more than 50,000 refugees from Sudan.

CRS Sudan serves all people in need without discrimination, including those living in camps, nomadic communities affected by the conflict and communities hosting displaced people. While insecurity at times restricts service delivery, CRS reaches thousands of people in need each month.

In 2007, CRS launched a peacebuilding and vocational program in El Obeid in partnership with the Don Bosco Vocational Training Center. The project trains youth of different ethnicities coming from Nyala and other parts of Darfur, providing an opportunity for these youth to live together in shared dormitories, building common understanding through vocational, educational and recreational activities.

To learn more about Darfur and the ongoing crisis situation, visit Save Darfur. To read more about the efforts of CRS in Darfur and other locations, CLICK HERE. To make a donation to help CRS in its efforts in Darfur, the rest of Sudan and around the world, CLICK HERE.

To read other +Ponderings+ about the problems faced by Africans, CLICK HERE. The horrors these people face are unimaginable. Generations have been murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped.

President Obama promised to offer a plan to help Darfur and now we anxiously await his plan for a peaceful end to the atrocities taking place. Action is needed for the people of Darfur and Sudan and they need it NOW.

More about CRS:

Sudanese Bishop Shares Picture of Little Progress

Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok of Khartoum, Sudan (Photo: ACN)

ACN News, Tuesday, 7th April 2009 – SUDAN

No end to the suffering
Bishop’s bleak assessment of progress since 2005 peace agreement
• Government in Khartoum still insists on Islamisation
• South Sudan’s insecurity prevents return of displaced people

By John Pontifex


A BISHOP in Sudan has given a damning indictment of progress for Christians more than four years on from an historic peace agreement which promised the country a fresh start after decades of war. In a message underlining the need to step-up help for displaced Christians in the north of the country, Bishop Daniel Adwok Kur stated that the national government’s treatment of non-Muslims remains unchanged. The Auxiliary Bishop of Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, went on to state that, with the continuing outbreak of conflict in many parts of the south, initiatives to move the refugees back to the south of the country have so far been sporadic.

'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.' -- Matthew 25

In his interview with the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Adwok said that, despite conciliatory gestures, the government in Khartoum remained wedded to the spread of Islam and the promotion of one religious and cultural identity. His comments represent a damning indictment of progress since January 2005 when the Khartoum government and southern-based rebels the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) put a formal end to 20 years of civil war by signing the landmark Comprehensive Peace Agreement. And with only two years remaining until the all-important referendum on possible independence for the south, as agreed in the CPA, the bishop’s bleak assessment bodes ill for the resolution of political issues left undecided in the 2005 deal – not least land disputes in areas where mineral resources have been discovered.

For Bishop Adwok, who is based in Kosti, 200 miles (320km) south of Khartoum, the key issue is that the Khartoum Government has not honoured its commitment to address the grievances of non-Muslims in Khartoum. A commission ‘for the rights of non-Muslims’ was envisaged by the CPA but as yet has not been established. The bishop said: “The government has always focused on the Islamisation process. I do not see any change on the part of the authorities.”

The bishop highlighted his frustration at efforts to enable the displaced people to return to their original homelands in the south, saying that security problems remained acute. He bemoaned the lack of adequate infrastructure for displaced people returning to the south. He said: “It is yet more insecurity that is deterring people from moving down to the south. There are on-going conflicts involving forces linked to the SPLA and the government in Khartoum. “It gives a picture of a land where people can only exist if they have a gun.”

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Aid to the Church in Need - "An international Catholic charity dependent on the Holy See, providing pastoral relief to needy and oppressed churches."

The Horror of Child Warriors in the Congo

In the mineral-rich Congo region of Africa, children as young as ten years old have been kidnapped, tortured, raped, drugged and forced into a senseless ethnic war for years. In recent weeks, hundreds of these children have returned to their homes broken and brainwashed, often rejected by their own families.

Following the atrocities in Rwanda, those who took part in the slaughter sought refuge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The methods of murder which left a world stunned in Rwanda were evident just months ago as reported in a Catholic News Service story released in December 2008:

Sister Marie-Bernard told Catholic News Service Dec. 29 that 50 bodies were found in the courtyard of a Catholic church in Doruma Christmas morning.

The Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, has been blamed for the church massacre as well as continued tensions in northeastern Congo. In early December, Ugandan, Congolese and southern Sudanese forces launched an offensive on the group.

Sister Marie-Bernard said the local justice and peace commission currently is taking scores of people to the local hospital.

"There are many people who were wounded by machete in the attacks; several people suffered amputations. The priority of the justice and peace workers is to ensure that these people now receive medical attention," she said.

"The situation in the Doruma and Faradje region grew very violent" in late December and "several civilians were killed in surrounding villages during these days -- around 200 bodies were found," she said.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUC, deplored the violence in the region. MONUC called on the Congolese army to intervene in a way that "respects humanitarian law and with care to avoid reprisals against the civilian population."

Caritas Congo reported Dec. 29 that during the Christmastime violence 20 children were abducted as child soldiers for the Lord's Resistance Army. Caritas Congo is the local affiliate of the international Catholic umbrella group Caritas Internationalis.

Caritas said 400 people, including two priests, were killed in the violence.

A Catholic church in Duru was burned to the ground and 6,500 people took refuge in another Catholic church in the Doruma region, Caritas said.

Generations of DR Congonese dare not imagine a life without violence and suffering. The nation should be a land of 'milk and honey' due to the natural resources yet malnutrition, murder, rape and vast poverty have been a fact of life for so many. Caritas Internationalis is among several Catholic agencies providing aid to the area and UNICEF has pleaded to have all child soldiers released.

From UNICEF:



What has the world done for the least of these? Obviously not enough. To learn more on what you can do to help, follow the links to Catholic Relief Services in DR of Congo and Caritas Internationalis.

African Catholics like Martin Mande are making a difference in the lives of the former child soldiers and their families. Mr. Mande is a member of the Xaveri Movement in Africa, named after St. Francis Xavier and has devoted his life to the ministry of helping children in the region where he serves as Pastoral Associate in his parish. As a refugee and migrant activist, Mr. Mande is one face among many who knows the difficulties faced by the former child soldiers. Please keep the children of the DR of Congo and those who help them in your prayers. Support these groups financially as you are able and listen to God's call - perhaps you are being called to a mission to help the Congonese or another needy population.