Crisis in Darfur: Sudan not letting genocide interfere with treaty celebration

What, me worry?

It was a sight that couldn’t be imagined a few years ago – John Garang, leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (made up of Christians and animists in southern Sudan) and Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha clasping hands in celebration in Khartoum, celebrating the signing of a peace treaty ending over 20 years of civil war. The move was looked upon kindly by the US, which had worked hard over the past few years to negotiate a truce between the two sides, which creates a structure to split oil revenue and negotiate the future of the relationship between the Islamic government in Khartoum and those in the South, be it co-existance in a federal structure or separation. The US, which has praised Sudan’s improvement in counter-terror operations, is eager to move forward with rebuilding relations with the oil-rich country. “The people of Sudan can now hope for a new future of peace and prosperity,” said US Secretary of State Colin Powell. “The United States is deeply committed to assist in the implementation of the peace agreement.” There’s just one small problem – the situation in the western state of Darfur is (according to the UN) the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Despite the impression that conflicts in the Sudan are religious in nature, the Darfur cleansing involves Muslims (Arabic-speaking) killing other Muslims (mainly black African). While the conflict in the south claimed over 2 million lives over two decades, the Darfur killings threaten to take that many lives in a matter of months if the government-supported Arab Sudanese militias are not stopped and humanitarian aid let through to the remote region. “This is the most dramatic race against the clock that we have anywhere in the world at the moment,” warned UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland. “If we lose, hundreds of thousands of women and children, mostly, will perish.”

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.