Scotland’s cardinal appeals for aid to help Sudan’s refugees

Jan 22, 2006 (EDINBURGH) — Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of Scotland’s Catholics, has issued a fresh plea for help for poverty-stricken Sudan during a two-week visit to the African country.

The cardinal will spend this week visiting aid projects in the war-torn region of Darfur, having just finished a tour of the south of the country, which is still suffering from the consequences of civil war.

O’Brien said that Sudan’s plight had fallen from the headlines and aid had begun to dry up. “Income to both charities and from government seems to be falling largely because of the outstanding demands for other things. Things like the tsunami have quite understandably turned people’s attention elsewhere.

“I have been in Rwanda, Congo, Ethiopia, but I have never seen anything like this. This is the poorest country I have ever seen.”

The cardinal – who has visited refugee camps which house up to 10,000 displaced people in conditions of extreme poverty – added: “It is quite unbelievable how they survive at all. They are just waiting for the rest of the human race to wake up and see that something drastic must be done to help.”

O’Brien also issued a call to action to African politicians, who this weekend are gathering in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum for the African Union congress. “The flowerbeds here are being tended for the African Union meeting. The politicians need to get out and see what the reality is and see at first hand what is going on, not just reading reports about the problem.”

(Scotsman)