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War and Peace…In Sudan
A great article by NYT reporter Nicholas Kristof, urging the world to keep an eye on Sudan:
“In short, war isn’t inevitable, but it’s a real risk. The U.S. and other countries played a huge role in achieving the CPA and they need to be very focused on making sure that the referendum is implemented. There’s a strong belief in the south that the north is planning to nurture tribal conflicts by handing out guns and encouraging grievances, so that the south will be too chaotic to hold the referendum on time. That may be true, but it’s also true that the south is corrupt and has had poor governance, encouraging grievances of its own. We can help resolve them, and we can also make it clear to the north that if a war starts up again, it will not be able to rely on air superiority this time around. We can signal, for example, that if the north bombs villages and IDP camps, the West will shoot down its fighter aircraft. There’s no way that the US is going to send ground troops to Sudan, but we could take out chunks of the north’s air force relatively easily — and the fear of losing its fighters would be a restraining force for the north.
John Prendergast, of the Enough Project, puts it this way, and I think he’s right:
The stakes are too high to leave US policy towards Sudan on auto-pilot. If the North-South deal crumbles, Sudan will become the largest and deadliest conventional war on earth. President Obama should empower Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Rice to oversee the implementation of the policy they themselves announced a half year ago, one that has been undermined by subsequent diplomatic gaffes and promised benchmarks that appear to have been ignored. Eight months from the South’s independence referendum is late, but not too late, to send a signal that war-mongering will be met with serious consequences.
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Election results are in…no suprises.
The results of the Sudan’s first ‘democratic’ election in two decades are now final, and indicate what everyone expected: no changes of power in the north or south. Article. We will continue to monitor the situation on the ground and anticipate heavy flying back into Sudan soon, as the organizations we support continue their ministries.
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some great numbers
(While ministry is not about numbers, here are some numbers that really made me proud to be part of our team.)
In the past two years, more than 20,000 patients have been cared for at the SIM clinic in Doro and more than 400 accutely malnourished children have been loved back to health in the SIM nutrition village. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness and for allowing us the joy of being involved.
Praise God for our team here on the ground as well as for all of you who support us with prayer, encouragement and financial support!
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Election results due out today
Though many of the districts results have already been release, today is the day the NEC is hoping to deliver the official national announcement.
To date, the elections have been an answer to prayer, with only a few skirmishes, potentially unrelated to the election. The turnout was also impressive:
“Till this afternoon, we haven’t witnessed any kind of violence, public disorder or any kind of incitement to violence. The response for the participation of the voters was very high. It was about 85 percent out of those who were registered — 16 million. So the response is great,” Waziri said.
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BBC: Sudan clashes kill ‘at least 50′
Fighting in the Northwest corner of southern Sudan apparently over grazing land, but with both sides claiming they were attacked first. The worst fighting during the elections, though not necessarily related to the elections. Article.
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a new look
Yes, for those of you bored enough to have been counting, it’s only been six months since the last time I changed our site’s look. However, as I was mulling over baby announcement designs I decided to do a who new site roll out as well.
