US Rep. McCollum visiting Africa to assess crisis in Sudan

WASHINGTON, Jan 21, 2005 (AP) — Rep. Betty McCollum began a trip to Africa on Friday as part of a congressional delegation to assess the American and international response to the refugee crisis in Sudan.

McCollum, D-Minn., will visit refugee camps in Chad where more than 200,000 people have fled from the Sudan region of Darfur. Some 70,000 people have died from disease and famine in Darfur since March, and many more were killed in the fighting, in what Secretary of State Colin Powell has labeled a genocide.

“The world must not forget or neglect the human tragedy of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan,” McCollum, who serves on the House International Relations Committee’s Africa subcommittee, said in a prepared statement.

The delegation will also visit Algeria on the four-day, bipartisan trip.