Crisis in Darfur, Sudan
NCC Resources for Education and Action

The United Nations has called the situation in Sudan "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today."  Tens of thousands of people have died and more than one million people in the region have been displaced in an apparent attempt at ethnic cleansing in Sudan’s Darfur region.  Refugees are living in makeshift camps, where mass rape of women and girls is common, living conditions are deplorable and diseases such as cholera, meningitis and polio threaten to take the lives of infants, children and the elderly.  If nothing is done to prevent it, countless thousands will die in the weeks and months ahead.

Civic actions by Americans of faith, including the National Council of Churches USA, are helping to raise awareness of the Darfur crisis and to yield some hopeful responses from U.S. officials regarding the shocking genocide that is steadily growing in the Darfur region. 

November 11, 2004, St. Louis, Mo. -- NCC/CWS Annual General Assembly Reaffirms NCC Executive Board's Action, in May 2004, Calling for Urgent Intervention to Stop the Killing in Sudan
The action commits the National Council of Churches, Church World Service and their member churches to intensifying their efforts against the genocide, condemns the involvement of all parties perpetrating genocide in the Sudan and calls upon the government of Sudan to bring an end to this practice immediately, including stopping attacks by its military and proxy militia against civilians in Darfur.  It asks the U.S. government "to press the Sudanese government to bring to a halt this unfolding horror and to support appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian, conflict resolution and peace enforcement efforts by the United Nations to these ends, and presses the international community and non-governmental organizations to investigate and monitor reports of crimes against humanity being committed in Sudan.

September 7, 2004, Nairobi, Kenya -- World's Ecumenical Leadership Writes Kofi Annan, Sudan's Church Leaders
General secretaries of world and regional ecumenical bodies, among them the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar of the National Council of Churches USA, concluded their annual meeting, held here Sept. 2-4, by addressing letters of support to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and to Sudan's church leaders, also asking Mr. Annan for a meeting before year's end and Sudan's churches for word on how the world's churches can help them press for peace, especially in Sudan's Darfur region.

August 25, 2004, New York City -- Sudan Genocide in the Spotlight: More Than 3,000 Sign Up to Fast, Join Webcast on Aug. 25 Darfur Crisis 'Day of Conscience'
A live Webcast Wednesday morning (Aug. 25), the National Day of Conscience on Sudan, gave U.S. viewers the opportunity to ask questions of a survivor of the Darfur genocide.  More than 3,000 people signed up for the Webcast, which originated from a refugee camp in Chad, just across the border from Sudan.  Participants saw satellite pictures of camp life, including the makeshift plastic cover shelters of new arrivals, queues for food and several hundred of the camp's 45,000 children and adults who had gathered around the on-the-ground camera crew. 

August 3, 2004 -- Coalition Sets Aug. 25 as Day of Conscience

The Save Darfur Coalition, which includes the National Council of Churches USA, has called on churches and humanitarian/civic groups across the nation to observe a special Sudan: Day of Conscience on Aug. 25 or another date appropriate to the local community.
 

August 2, 2004 -- 70-Member Save Darfur Coalition Issues Call to Action

The National Council of Churches USA and Church World Service were among the 70 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations who issued a Unity Statement and Call to Action in response to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. The coalition's goal is to raise public awareness and to mobilize North Americans and members of the international community to respond to and help end the atrocities that threaten the lives of two million people in the region.
 

July 16, 2004 -- Genocide in Sudan: A Test of Our Faith
In response to an e-mail bulletin sent out July 16, participants in FaithfulAmerica.org, the new online advocacy service sponsored by NCC for persons of faith, sent more than 52,000 messages to members of Congress asking them to vote for bi-partisan House and Senate resolutions demanding the U.S. take action to stop the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Just before adjourning until September, both the U.S. House and Senate unanimously passed the resolutions.

July 16, 2004 -- NCC Joins Wide NGO Appeal to U.N. on Sudan Darfur Crisis
The National Council of Churches USA joined with other non-governmental organizations today in a letter to the United Nations Security Council, urging that the Council take specific actions to thwart genocide in the Darfur Region of Sudan and not to allow diplomatic processes to slow down their response.  The sign-on was coordinated by the World Federalist Movement.

July 14, 2004, Washington, D.C. -- NCC General Secretary Arrested in Protest Outside Sudan Embassy
On July 14, in an act of civil disobedience to call public attention to the unfolding genocide, NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar (shown here carrying a protest sign) and other prominent Americans were arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington. His arrest was part of a campaign by many humanitarian groups that included daily demonstrations in front of the embassy. 

July 6, 2004 -- Church World Service Issues $1.75 Million Appeal for Sudan/Darfur
As United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned African Union leaders at a summit in Addis Ababa that the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, threatened to destabilize the region, humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) said it was expanding its support for what is being called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.  The global ecumenical humanitarian agency of the NCC's 36 member denominations, CWS announced that it has issued a $1,750,000 fundraising appeal, launched a nationwide direct mail campaign, and upped its advocacy efforts at government, grassroots, and faith community levels.

May 18, 2004, Chicago, Ill. -- NCC Board Asks Urgent Intervention in the Sudan
Urgent intervention to stop the killing in Sudan was the call of the NCC's Executive Board in a resolution adopted unanimously during its spring meeting in Chicago May 17-18.  The Board committed the NCC and its member churches "to intensifying their efforts" against the genocide, condemned the involvement of all parties perpetrating genocide in the Sudan and called upon the government of Sudan to bring an end to this practice immediately, including stopping attacks by its military and proxy militia against civilians in Darfur.  It asked the U.S. government "to press the Sudanese government to bring to a halt this unfolding horror and to support appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian, conflict resolution and peace enforcement efforts by the United Nations to these ends, and pressed the international community and non-governmental organizations to investigate and monitor reports of crimes against humanity being committed in Sudan.

April 23, 2004, Los Angeles, Calif. -- Samantha Power Says Genocide Can Be Prevented, Urges Attention to Darfur
An NCC-sponsored commemoration of the 10^th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide recalled the horror of the genocide and offered a word of counsel and hope - genocide can be prevented.  Keynote speaker Samantha Power, recipient of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for her book “’A Problem from Hell’: America and the Age of Genocide,” called on United States to redefine its “vital interests” to include genocide. Another positive step, she said, “would be for the U.S. to replace its ‘all or nothing’ diplomatic approach with a continuum of responses and options that may stop genocide before it occurs. The failure of the U.S. government to act is always an implicit signal to other governments as well as a green light to the perpetrators of genocide.”  Power noted that such actions would be necessary to prevent a repetition of this horror in Sudan. She pointed out that even the slightest condemnation by the U.S. Government of policies of the government in Khartoum results in the easing up of hostilities.

Additional Links

The Save Darfur Coalition -- an alliance of over 100 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations with a mission to raise public awareness and to mobilize an effective unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of two million people in the Darfur region.

DarfurGenocide.org -- This site's sole purpose is to try to save lives by helping stop the genocide in Darfur. It options for smart, strategic actions to compel those in power to act through international petitions or local events.  It provides access to relevant, up-to-date information and offers links for contributing online to aid agencies or to the DarfurGenocide.org Advocacy Fund.

Help Stop the Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan -- Church World Service Action Alert to urge President Bush to push for guaranteed access to Darfur camps by humanitarian agencies.

Sudan conflict web links - http://www.usip.org/library/regions/sudan.html