African churches warn Sudan is ‘genocide in the making’ 

by Fredrick Nzwili
Ecumenical News International

NAIROBI — The All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) has warned of “genocide in the making” in Sudan, after sending a delegation late last month to the war-torn northeast African nation. 

      The continental church group said the situation in Sudan resembled that of Rwanda 10 years ago when up to a million people were slaughtered as the world looked on. 

      he world’s attention has been focused in recent weeks on Darfur, a war-torn region in western Sudan, but the leading African ecumenical body said that government-backed militias were also raiding villages in the Upper Nile region. 

      It accused African governments of indifference to the suffering of the people of Sudan, for failing to respond to their appeals and for having supported the re-election of Sudan to the executive committee of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission. 

       “The recent unfolding situation truly lends itself to genocide in the making,” AACC general secretary, the Rev. Mvume Dandala told the media here after the visit. “If another tragedy develops in proportion to that of Rwanda, this will be an indictment on our generation.”  

      The AACC reported that it had received information the evening before that the homes of about 23,000 people had been destroyed in the Upper Nile region. 

      Dandala, a South African Methodist, noted: “We further learnt the militias were moving towards the northern part of Upper Nile causing thousands of helpless people to flee their homes.” 

      Separately, the Rev. Sam Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, called on the president of Sudan, Lieutenant-General Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, “to take steps to put an end to human rights violations in the [Darfur] region and to ensure that those guilty of committing acts of violence and human rights abuses are brought to justice.”  

      In another development, the Rev. Frank T. Griswold, the presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal (Anglican) Church, said, “My attention is sadly drawn to the actions of the Sudanese government in once again carrying out an act of aggression against the Episcopal Church of Sudan.” 

      He said that armed Sudanese police had entered the church’s offices in Khartoum and ordered the eviction of church personnel and property in a long series of attempts to halt church work in the country. 

      “The police were acting on a court-issued eviction order in which the judge authorized the use of force to ensure eviction,” said Griswold. “To avoid the use of force, church staff had no choice but to vacate the building peacefully while trying to follow the legal process. They have since taken refuge in the cathedral in Khartoum.” 

      For his part, Dandala described some camps for black refugees and displaced persons 20 kilometers from Khartoum as “hell on earth.” Thousands of children, women, the elderly and young people, he reported, were languishing there in temperatures ranging from 42 to 47 degrees Celsius. 

      “We are concerned at what seems to be a sense of indifference in our continent towards the tragedy of the people of Sudan,” Dandala said. Many Sudanese, he said, felt the continent was supporting things that caused their suffering by backing Sudan’s re-election to the U.N. Human rights commission, an action lambasted by human rights groups. 

      The AACC called on African governments to start showing commitment to the elimination of pain and suffering in Sudan. 

      “We want to say to the whole world that Sudan is going through a lot of pain and requires compassion of the world and solidarity of the world,” Dandala said. 

      In Darfur, conflict between mainly black Sudanese rebels and government-backed Arab militiamen, has led to the deaths of thousands and as many as one million people being displaced, an activity described as ethnic cleansing.