United States needs to help Sudan

Imagine being forced to leave your home every night and walk for miles, only to sleep on the ground surrounded by barbed wire.

Could you imagine being terrified to walk outside because you could be raped, mutilated, murdered or captured because of the color of your skin?

U.N. officials and human rights groups refer to it as “ethnic cleansing,” “a crime against humanity” and “the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis.”

The genocide in Sudan has to stop.

If you don’t know, in Darfur, a region of western Sudan, there is a major conflict coming to be known world-wide as the worst genocide in history.

It is a shame that we, who go to a historically black university, have not addressed the massive slaughter of our brothers and sisters in Africa.

The Janjaweed, a black Muslim militia group claiming Arab background, is one of the principal groups in the ethnic cleansing of non-Arab populations in Darfur.

While the Sudanese government sits back and silently supports the Janjaweed, thousands of non-Arabs are being killed, raped and displaced.

In early July 2004, then United States Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Sudan and urged the government to help stop the problem. He was, for lack of a better term, ignored.

So, in September 2004, Powell declared to the U.S. Senate that genocide was occurring in Darfur. And in October 2004 the World Health Organization estimated 70,000 people had died of disease and malnutrition in Darfur since March of that year.

The U.N. and Sudan government should stop pretending that the problem will just go away because obviously it is not working.

It is important for us all to act now and donate our time and money to help stop the genocide.

As a semi-broke college student, I know it can be hard at times to donate money you may need for bills.

But just think of how that money will help another human being live a happy life.

And if you can’t donate money, there are numerous Web sites such as www.savedarfur.org and www.sudantribune.org that you can visit to voice your concern to the U.N. and George Bush or get more information

The question I pose in response to the ongoing genocide is,

“Would there have been a quicker, more efficient response, if the victims were not African?”

Just look at the response to Hurricane Katrina victims in America.

You make the call.

Katrelle Simmons is a junior English education student from Orlando. She can be reached at famuanopinions@hotmail.com.