International Aid Groups Join Forces to Call For Peace in Darfur during Peace Talks
Seven international non-governmental organizations sent letters to express concern.
Seven international aid organizations are banding together to call for peace and security in Sudan, a country torn by 19 years of civil war. Substantive peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebel groups resumed on Monday in Abuja, Nigeria.
The Sudanese government and the two southern rebel groups, the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), began substantive peace talks on Oct. 3 as part of the sixth round of peace talks on Darfur that began on Sept. 15, according to the Sudan Tribune. Monday was the first time during the sixth round of peace talks that both sides had direct discussion. Overall, Darfur peace talks have occurred for over a year.
“Now more than ever it is important for the Sudanese government to show their commitment to preventing violence and seeking peace,” read a statement by Kathryn Wolford, president of Lutheran World Relief, which is one of the seven organizations that banded together. “For peace in Sudan to exist and be sustained, there must be a political solution. That is why the talks in Abuja are so critical.”
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In solidarity, seven international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - which include LWR, Church World Service, Norwegian Church Aid, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Dan Church Aid, Trocaire, and Christian Aid - sent letters to the delegations of all parties at the Abuja talks.
The letter, signed by the senior representatives of each organizations, expressed concern about the “serious worsening of the security situation in Darfur, and the continuing pattern of harassment of NGOs working there,” said LWR in a statement.
Although the Sudanese government and the rebel groups have agreed to a cease fire, the violence has reportedly worsen since the delegations arrived in Abuja. Baba Gana Kingibe, the chief African Union (A.U.) envoy to Sudan received report from the A.U. ceasefire monitoring team in Darfur that Sudanese government forces attacked civilians in several regions in north Darfur last Saturday, killing at least 44 people and displacing thousands over the past two weeks, according to Sudan Tribune.
“We cannot understand the killing of innocent civilians – even in internally displaced persons’ camps – and the destruction of the homes and the social fabric of Darfur when the major participants are all here in Abuja,” said Salim Ahmed Salim, the A.U. conference chairman, as reported by the South African daily Business Day.
Sudan’s war has killed an estimated two million people since 1983 and displaced four million people. LWR has placed Sudan as one of its highest priorities and spends close to $5 million on programming for Sudan and displaced Sudanese in surrounding countries. LWR’s investment in the one country is its largest.
Wolford concluded, “The crisis in Darfur has been called the 21st century’s first genocide. We consider it a moral imperative to respond to the crisis there and that’s why we have made it such a high priority.”
