Darfur’s dire plight

Editorial, The Toronto Star

June 6, 2005 — Wartorn Darfur may be slipping from the headlines but the crisis there is not abating. It grows sickeningly worse by the day.

The United Nations now reports 3.5 million Sudanese in the Darfur region need food. That number was supposed to “peak” at 2.8 million.

And while the African Union plans to deploy 8,000 troops in the coming months to protect refugees, fewer than 3,000 are there now. Commanders need $600 million (U.S.) to pay for troops, equipment and supplies. Yet even after recent pledges by Canada, the United States and others, they have just $400 million.

And while talks are set to resume this week between Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s Arab-dominated regime and the Darfur rebels who demand regional autonomy, there is no guarantee they will get anywhere. This war has dragged on for two years, killing as many as 300,000 and uprooting 2 million.

Canada and other friends of Africa must send out a clear message to al-Bashir: Bring about a truce or brace for Security Council sanctions. Then we should lobby China and Russia to stop opposing sanctions. They must look beyond their self-interested oil purchases and arms deals in Khartoum to the millions who look to the council for hope, not indifference.