wfn.org | AACC - Mvume Dandala Statement on Sudan

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PRESS STATEMENT ON SUDAN

The General Secretary of all All Africa Conference of Churches Rev. Dr. H. 
Mvume Dandala led an AACC delegation to Sudan last week.

Upon his return, he addressed a Kenyan and international press conference 
held on May 20th, 2004. He was accompanied by members of the AACC Executive 
Committee which has been meeting in Nairobi.

The following is the statement.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press
By the General Secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, Rev. Dr. 
Mvume Dandala
Thank you for responding to our invitation to this press conference.

I have just returned from a visit to the Sudan, extremely heart-broken from 
a shocking experience.

The Sudan, as you are aware, is everything that embodies pain.	It is a 
huge cauldron  a boiling pot, burning, bleeding and hurting all at the 
same time.

While the graphic media reports have caused all of us, the world over to 
focus attention primarily on the Darfur, we were informed that government 
backed militias are raiding villages in the Upper Nile around Malakal with 
equal zeal as that of Darfur.  The scenario illustrates the sad perversity 
of the inhuman nature that has been allowed to exist in our modern and 
supposedly civilized world.

Reports reaching us last evening from our contacts in Sudan said that 
within the last four days, homes of an estimated 23,000 villagers have been 
razed down in the Upper Nile.  We further learned that the militias were 
moving towards the northern part of Upper Nile causing thousands of 
helpless villagers to flee their homes.

So far 150,000 people have been displaced and the humanitarian agencies 
have left the area.

What is even sad is that blacks are conscripted into the militia gangs to 
raid and kill their own innocent people, mostly the Shilluk and Nuer 
tribes, who for time immemorial have lived in the Upper Nile region as 
their home.

Together with Dafur, the recent unfolding situation truly lends itself to a 
genocide in the making.  It resembles Rwanda ten years ago when the world 
merely watched as tragic events took place.

During our tour of northern Sudan we found black refugees and internally 
displaced persons in the camps about 20 kilometres from Khartoum living in 
what can be described as hell on earth.  There are over 65,000 people at 
the Geberona camp alone.  60,000 at Jebelaulia and over 35,000 at Hajuosif 
camps respectively.  However, majority are women and children.	Here, 
children, women, the old and youth languish in the hot sand with 
temperatures ranging between 42 degrees centigrade and upto 47 degrees 
centigrade.

We were also informed by our hosts the Sudan Council of Churches that they 
have written letters of appeal for intervention to embassies based in 
Khartoum.  While those from the North responded, the rest from Africa 
seemed indifferent bearing in mind the fact that Africa successfully 
supported appointment of the chairmanship of United Nations Human Rights 
Commission.

There is a great need for the world to put in place support structures that 
will enable the Sudan peace process in Naivasha and subsequent agreements, 
to contain the tragic destruction.

The World Council of Churches has meanwhile urged Sudan government to help 
end hositilities and human rights violations in Darfur.

Hand in hand with the initiatives taken by WCC, the AACC urges the world to 
keep the whole Sudan in focus beyond Darfur.

The AACC believes there are strong grounds for investigating and monitoring 
reports of crime against humanity in Sudan.

Thank you.
All Africa Conference of Churches
Information and Communication Desk
P. O. Box 14205
00800 Westlands
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254 - 020 - 4441483 / 4441338/9
Fax: 254 - 020 - 4443241, 4445835
E-mail: infodesk@aacc-ceta.org
Website: www.aacc-ceta.org