Followup: Sudan

You can read my original post about the conflict in Sudan by clicking here.

Since the beginning of March, there have been some major developments in the crisis in Darfur. Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the president of Sudan. He has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity; this arrest warrant is significant because it is the first time that the ICC has ever issued a warrant for a sitting head of state. (You can read more about the ICC here.)

In response to the issuing of the warrant, the al-Bashir government rejected the authority of the ICC, and promptly issued a statement saying they would be expelling 13 major non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are distributing aid in the Darfur region, including Oxfam, Care International, Doctors Without Borders, and Save the Children. This is obviously a political ploy, an attempt by al-Bashir to "raise the stakes," and it's one that will have a devastating impact on the lives of millions of people.

The government began kicking these organizations out of the country a few days ago. NGOs like these have been providing ongoing aid to millions of displaced people across Darfur and Southern Sudan. The UN warned that "the loss of these non-governmental organizations means that more than one million people will be without food, 1.5 million without health care, and over one million without drinkable water" (read the full article here). You can listen to or read a March 10 NPR story about the situation in Darfur here.

Aid organizations predicted that the Sudanese population could begin to feel the effects of these expulsions within a few days--so, that means today. I read that some NGOs from Asian and Arab countries have applied to begin working in Sudan, in attempt to fill some of the gaps left behind by the departure of these major NGOs. This is a small glimmer of hope, but the information trickling in from Darfur is pretty dire. Save Darfur has up-to-the-minute information on their website.

A couple of things you can do:

1) Sign up, if you haven't already, to receive e-mail updates with action alerts from Save Darfur.

2) Click here to send a letter to Secretary of State Clinton, urging her to make Darfur an immediate priority.

3) Send a postcard to President Obama. He has issued some strong statements over the past few days, but we need to hear more. According to this interesting article, President Obama has "moral authority" in this area because of his African heritage, and we need to keep the pressure on him to be an unwavering voice about this conflict.