Friday Focus: Church Alliance for a new Sudan

It seems Sudan is never far from the headlines.  Darfur is probably the most well-known of the regions and most heartrending crisis in the American imagination.  For as long as I've known Faith McDonnell one region or another of Sudan seems to have been in the news.  The majority of these conflicts have been some variation of the Arab/Islamist rulers in Khartoum (or their proxies, such as the Ugandan LRA) waging war on Black Africans (who are primarily Christian or Animist). 

The world community pays little attention to these conflicts until a celebrity like Bono of U2 takes up the cause.  But those of us who are acquainted with Faith know that she is always on top of it, rarely misses a protest outside of the Sudanese Embassy in WDC and is tireless in her efforts to mobilize churches and their members to press Congress, the President and the State Department to formulate a coherent foreign policy response to Sudan.  This policy must include genocide prevention measures as well as strong support for the new government in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains.

The Church Alliance for a New Sudan, a program of the IRD, has partnered with the Sudanese Church since 1994.  Working with key leaders in Sudan and the United States, CANS assists these leaders with research, draft resolutions and testimony for asylum hearing of Sudanese refugees as well as working to educate members of Congress and the general public about Khartoum's plans to eradicate or convert the nonMuslim peoples of Sudan.