Lost in all the fuss and attention being made over Iraq, Iran and North Korea, is the escalation in the atrocities affecting our African brothers and sisters in the Sudan and Chad. Over the past years there has been continuous Arab-African clashes in Sudan’s Darfur region, which has resulted in the violent death of thousands of African men, women and children, and the rape and disfigurement of thousands of women. All this is happening while America concentrates on the Iraq war, with hardly a comment on the Sudanese situation.

However, we need to raise the public’s awareness of what is going on in the sub-Saharan African region, and seek more international intervention before the situation worsens. Enough African blood has been shed in recent years in Rawanda, Uganda, Liberia and other African nations for us to just gloss over these atrocities. People from the Caribbean speak so often about their birthright allegiance to Africa. So many of us have spoken, and made songs about our wanting to be repatriated to Africa. Some of us even worship an apostle who descended from Africa – His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie. Indeed, the map of Africa is an icon of black power to many Caribbean nationals. But, how many us of are aware of, or even care about what is happening to our kin in African regions like Darfur, Sudan and now Chad?

History tells us that many generations ago Arabs, including slave traders, arrived in Sub-Saharan Africa. Through intermarriage the Arabs mixed with the Africans, and many of the Africans embraced the religion of Islam, alongside Christianity. This caused a blurring of identities and was loosely tolerated. However, an ethnic divide still existed between Arabs and Africans. This divide widen over the years resulting in a Muslim (North Sudan)-Christian (South Sudan), and an Arab-African conflict, which escalated into violent civil unrest in 2003. In Darfur, jost of the residents are of Arabian descent and are Muslims. Backed by the Sudanese government (although they have denied this), an Arabian militia group called the Janjaweed wrought unimaginable death, violations, and destruction on black-Africans and Christians. The Janjaweed is bent on cleansing Sudan of all black-Africans, and have wrought countless atrocities, mainly through the rape of their women.

The estimates of those killed in Darfur to date ranges anywhere from 200,000 to 450,000. So widespread has been the killing that it seems that there are too many bodies to count accurately. In addition, some 2.5 million people have been displaced. Now, the violence has spread across Sudan’s border to neighboring Chad, to which refugees from Darfur have been fleeing. There have been steady reports of upsurge in fighting between Arabs and Africans among Chadians, resulting in the death of hundreds of Africans. In recent days more than 20 villages have been systematically burnt in Eastern Chad. In the farming village of Tamajour, home to 600 black Africans, all the houses were burnt to the ground. Reports are that the attacks were by the Janjaweed who swept into the village on horseback, firing heavy weapons and torching huts. It is obvious that the intent of the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed is to wipe ethnic Africans from this region of Africa.

The world sat by while various pointless meetings in distant places discussed Rawanda, but did little to stop the violence between the warring tribes. Now, it is happening all over again in Sudan and Chad. The Sudanese government seems to be a law entirely unto itself. Although the United Nations have authorized 20,000 troops to intervene in Darfur to restore some semblance of peace, the Sudanese government has refused to allow the UN peacekeepers in.

We cannot allow so much to blood to flow in Africa. We cannot continue to allow women to be raped and scarred for life while thousands of children are left parentless and homeless. Somehow, the Western World has never really grasped the intensity of the plight in Africa. Yet we are fed a daily diet of the atrocities in the Middle East. Oh! We do understand the value of oil, and the importance of Middle East oil to America and the West. We do also understand that places like the Sudan have no oil. But, there are people in Africa, black people who we, Caribbean people, are so proud to claim as our brothers and sisters. The lives of these people are being wantonly destroyed. We need to begin speaking out and against the Sudan situation. The Caribbean must speak out collectively against the atrocities, and seek more aggressive action by the UN. We, residing in America must speak out so that our Congressional representatives hear us. We must lobby for more than a measly 20,000 UN troops be sent to Sudan. There is also great need for economic aid. People are starving, and dying from various diseases. We can begin to initiate meaningful fundraising drives to alleviate some of these problems.

Look at this picture. Can’t we see that something is wrong? There are over 130,000 Americans (and coalition troops in Iraq). They have been there since 2003, the same time the war in Darfur escalated. Yet, since 2003 to 2006 there were only 7,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur, while well over 200,000 may have been killed. How could 7,000 peacekeepers match the Janjaweed, a well-trained militia of thousands, very familiar with the Sudanese terrain? Why has the world lost its conscience about Rawanda, Uganda, Liberia, The Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia -- really, the entire continent of Africa. This time we can’t just blame America, who is bent on protecting its oil sources. We have to blame the entire world, including ourselves. Listen -- our brothers and sisters in Africa are being raped, killed and displaced. Are we going to do something about this? Remember Marcus Garvey “Back to Africa!” Right! Remember Bob Marley “Man to man, is so unjust.” We must try to get it right.