The Continuing Challenges in Darfur

Fighting and genocide in Darfur has been going on for years, but the situation has unfortunately not gotten much better. Mostly due to the government's lack of response and the lack of foreign aid originally, there hasn't been a significant decrease in fights. Fights are taking place between the two separate groups who are against the government, as well as towards citizens who are of varying race.

The worst part about Darfur is that people the government hired to help decrease fighting, have decided to run a government funded killing spree. No one can be 100% sure if they were hired to carry out genocide like the other two groups are doing, but they have been using their governmental rights to kill many. There is really no one to be trusted.

Foreign aid came too late in terms of stopping a mass movement. Since many governments refused, (and still do), to refer to the situation as genocide, they've been skeptical about providing troops and aid to deal with the on-going problem. There has been much talk about how to solve the problem in Darfur, but no true conclusion has been decided upon. The more meetings held, the less action, and the more people driven from their homes, raped, and killed.

Overall it's like playing russian roulette. If action is taken, it could do some good for the government, scare them into taking affirmative action to ending the fighting in their country, or it could blow up in the face of the country who is taking action. The US doesn't want to get involved because we cannot be seen as supporting a country who is experimenting an ethnic cleansing, but we also do not want to be seen as not supporting a nation in need---this is how most countries seem to feel on the matter.

There's no right way to handle the situation, but not handing it isn't doing any good either.

Since 2003, many people have fled and felt that returning to their homes would surely mean death. It's just this year that some from refugee camps have decided to return to their land and plant crops. This will hopefully bring back some stability into the country. It just causes me to wonder if the fighting groups will take advantage of this and decide to kill those who have come back.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/world/africa/02darfur.html

The one thing that continually pops up into my mind is the questioning of whether or not things in Darfur are getting the amount of attention they deserve. The US certainly has it's hands full with all of the countries we're trying to help and the wars we are fighting, but has Darfur become lost in the number of started projects? There seems to be little that we can do to spark interest, but perhaps there are some people who can reach out to a fraction of society and rekindle the fire. Tracy McGrady, from the NBA, recently visited Darfur and came away with a new appreciation for helping the situation. He has started children's programs to raise money to help Darfur and with such a well-known person working to spread the word, hopefully more people will become interested in and willing to help the situation.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20100101/NEWS/1015023/1002/Sports?Title=Darfur-Visit-Changes-NBA-s-Tracy-McGrady-Igniting-in-Him-a-Fight-for-Their-Lives