In a hard-hitting July 12 op-ed in the New York Times, prominent journalist Nicholas Kristof noted that national governments speak out against the horrific violence in Sudan but refrain from talking about the role of the United Arab Emirates, chief armorer of Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces. Kristof hints that the present may a good time to put the spotlight the Emirates. Abu Dhabi wants to avoid unfavorable publicity because it has its own candidate to succeed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the end of this year.
The President of AFRECS, Anita Sanborn, and I, urge Episcopalians, other Christians, and people of good will everywhere to sign our letter (or write your own) and send it to your Congressional representatives in support of two pending bills which would limit US sales of weapons to the UAE as long as it arms the RSF.
A UN fact-finding mission has concluded a careful and massively detailed investigation of the massacres in El Fasher last September, stating that material crimes of genocide by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against Zaghawa and Fur people were “overwhelmingly present.” Tens of thousands are still unaccounted for.
A London Times reporter describes the agony of displaced residents of Darfur fleeing the massacres in El Fasher only to face the possibility of the same today in El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan. In El Obeid, families are starving while dodging indiscriminate drone attacks just to stay alive,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council on July 7th. “The world has been warned about this crisis and let it happen anyway.”
Agencies including Christian Aid, Catholic Relief Services, and Pax Christi have pleaded, “El-Obeid must not be allowed to become the site of further grave violations and preventable humanitarian catastrophe.”
Executive Director