Attacks on villagers by government-backed militia of Arab heritage have raised the spectre of genocide in Sudan’s western Darfur region. In the south, the Khartoum government and southern rebels have officially ended Africa’s longest-running war -- a 21-year civil conflict that the United Nations estimates killed two million -- but the humanitarian crisis continues to fester, with more than 5.5 million people displaced from their homes. Simmering conflict in northeastern Sudan, the Nuba mountains of south Kordofan, the Southern Blue Nile and Abyei risk destabilising the country further.
In a poll of "forgotten" emergencies released by AlertNet in March 2005, aid experts chose Sudan as the world's third-biggest neglected crisis. Here they explain why.On the scale of the crisis in Darfur…
In nearly 40 years of traveling the world, I have not witnessed any crisis that so vividly combines the worst of everything -- armed conflict; acts of extreme violence; great tides of desperate refugees; hunger and disease combined with an unforgiving desert climate. Martin Bell
British journalist, former lawmaker, UNICEF UK’s ambassador for humanitarian emergencies On a U.N. panel’s finding there was no genocide in Darfur…
The Darfur situation is probably the more serious in that given what the U.N. Commission decided it is now open season and it is likely that the Janjaweed and the Sudan government may decide to continue to kill with impunity leaving the lives of 1.8 million people in absolute peril over the coming months. John O'Shea
Chief executive, GOAL, IrelandOn media coverage…
I would like the media to continue to focus on Sudan. This seems to have fallen off the map a bit. It’s very telling how the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for Sudan reached “only” £35 million -- perhaps this has not been as “real” to western public donors as the tsunami. Some human interest stories could help to refocus this. Juliette Prodhan
Acting regional humanitarian coordinator, Oxfam GB in East AsiaOn the quality of life in southern Sudan…
"Southern Sudan," a U.N. official told me, "is still the worst place in the world to be born." The statistics do not contradict him. In education, literacy, and child malnutrition, southern Sudan ranks at the bottom of the world, and is near the bottom in all other social indicators. Most international attention is focused on Darfur, but southern Sudan suffers from a continuing humanitarian emergency. Larry Thompson
Senior advocate, Refugees International, USAOn the food crisis in southern Sudan…
Considerable diplomatic effort by the U.S., U.K., Norway and E.U. has gone into brokering the peace accord. Yet it will mean little to the people of Sudan unless they have enough to eat while they rebuild the war-ravaged south. Our operation there has just seven percent of the money it needs this year. James Morris
Executive director, U.N. World Food ProgrammeOn Sudan’s other hotspots…
And if I can suggest another crisis, I'd be tempted to go for non-Darfur and non-SPLA parts of Sudan -- e.g., the Beja in the northeast and perhaps also Kordofan. A greater and more widespread understanding of groups such as these will be essential if the peace process is to achieve a lasting settlement in Sudan. George Graham
Programme officer for East Africa, International Rescue Committee, UK
An Egyptian national team soccer fan cheers with the Egyptian flag at Al Merreikh stadium before the start of their 2010 World Cup qualifying playoff soccer match against Algeria in Khartoum ...
