US NGOs to seek solution to Sudan’s Darfur conflict

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 9, 2004 (PANA) — A coalition of US based non-governmental organisations meet in Washington Friday to discuss what they described as lack of progress in addressing the ongoing crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

The NGO’s to meet under the umbrella of the International Crisis Group at the National Press Club, said they would compare the Darfur crisis with the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where over 800,00 people were slaughtered in 100 days.

Darfur, located in the western region of Sudan, continues to be
embroiled in a vicious conflict where at least 70,000 people are
believed to have died since violence erupted in February 2003,
according to the UN.

Over 1.2 million people have been driven from their homes and
200,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Chad, causing strain
to the north African country’s limited resources.

According to international humanitarian aid agencies, another
800,000 people are said to be beyond the reach of humanitarian
agencies

“Each day, civilians face the possibility of mass killings,
torture, rape, destruction of villages, theft and other human
rights abuses,” says the coalition

On 9 September 2004, Secretary of State Colin Powell declared the
abuses being committed in Darfur as genocide.

This followed the earlier passage of a resolution in the US
Congress that also labelled the Darfur killings a genocide.

“In the roughly 100 days since Powell’s declaration hundreds more
have been killed, tortured and displaced while the Sudanese
government has stalled effective action under the guise of
negotiating with various sectors of the international community,”
claimed the NGOs.

But the Sudanese government, who partly attributing the crisis to
the scramble for limited resources between pastoralist
communities and their farming neighbours, dispute the figures
released by the UN and agencies, saying the matter is being blown
out of proportion.

Sudan has been under intense pressure to stop the crisis in
Darfur.

The crisis featured prominently at last month’s UN Security
Council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, attended by among others UN
secretary-general Kofi Annan, among others.

The security council meeting, convened to discuss the conflict in
southern Sudan, urged the Sudanese Government and the Sudan
People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) to fast-track the signing of
peace, noting that it would help end the Darfur conflict.