Focus on Sudan—More Than a Humanitarian Crisis

The disaster in the Darfur region of Sudan is called "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today." Why doesn't the United Nations simply stop it? Why don't the world's powerful nations step in to end the crisis? This article separates the tangled issues to show what is happening and why, as well as what to expect next.

by Cecil E. Maranville

What do you know about Sudan? Until recently, most in the West would likely have said, "That's the little African country that the U.S. attacked with cruise missiles during the Clinton administration."

And that is partly true. The United States destroyed what it said was a nerve gas manufacturing plant in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, in August 1998. (Sudan maintains to this day that it was a pharmaceutical plant.)

But Sudan is not a little country. It is the largest nation in Africa, about 25 percent of the size of the continental United States. The Nile River traverses it from north to south, and all of this mighty river's tributaries are partially or entirely within Sudan.

Its extensive borders touch Egypt, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea. It even has 500 miles of coastline on the Red Sea. Its eastern boundary is not far from the new base of the U.S. Combined Joint Task Force in Djibouti, from which counterterrorism in the Horn of Africa is coordinated.

In January of this year, the world suddenly took notice of Sudan, when 100,000 refugees poured into neighboring Chad. While the world news seems taken up with Iraq, Sudanese continue to die at a rate of 10,000 per month. U.S. officials warn that even with the massive international relief effort underway, hundreds of thousands more will die.

The U.S. Congress declared the matter genocide. So, why doesn't the international community stop the slaughter? Ah, now we begin to step into the complexities. The UN's World Food Program says the death rate "isn't actually genocide," and the UN has appointed a commission to study whether that term should be used. This all seems to be so much "fiddling while Rome burns."

The ethnic and religious face of Sudan

Read the full article at www.wnponline.org/wnp/wnp0411/focusonsudan.htm

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