_20.jpg)
Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.
As polio threatens to terrorize Syria, nearly 165,000 children in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states in Sudan are also in grave danger of contracting the disease. These children have had to contend with minimal food and clean water, few schools, and many have had to seek shelter in caves to flee fighting. A national vaccination campaign began in Sudan last week, however the children living in Blue Nile and South Kordofan were excluded. The Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North, or SPLM-N, continues to disagree about allowing safe passage to those distributing the vaccinations.
Charges including mass rape, murder, and war crimes that date back to November 2012 are finally being brought to court during the trial of 41 soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In November 2012, 135 cases of sexual violence and human rights abuses were reported during a U.N. investigation. In October 2013, a year after the cases were reported, MONUSCO voiced concern that nothing happened to the suspected perpetrators.
Liv Tørres, of Norwegian People's Aid, wrote an insightful essay on Malik Agar, a father, grandfather, former law student and now, rebel leader of the Sudan Revolutionary Front and SPLA-N Liberation Army. He started his career in Sudan as a teacher spreading the values and information through the educational system. When civil war broke out in Blue Nile, he and other residents struggled against oppression. In 1984, he put aside his gradebook and began fighting for equality and democracy:
“As long as the fight goes on, we can set up our headquarters anywhere. All you need is a hut, a tiny bit of equipment and some dedicated men. And you’ll always find dedicated men as long as Khartoum continues its attacks and war crimes,” Agar says.
An African Union envoy reported that Lord’s Resistance Army leader, Jospeh Kony, is seriously ill and still on the run near Darfur and the Central African Republic. Ambassador Madeira has been in contact with Central African Republic President Michel Djotodia, who claims he has encouraged Kony to surrender. Madeira speculated that Kony’s unknown illness may be leading him “to have his people surrender en masse or looking at the possibility of settling in Central Africa.”
Fighting between the Salamat and Messeiriya tribes in southwest Darfur left nearly 200 killed. The renewed violence between the two Arab tribes has affected a displaced persons camp and a food shelter run by an NGO. Earlier this month, Abdel-Rahim Hussein, Sudanese Defense Minister, pledged to purge the country of the rebellion during the impending dry season.