Bishops urge Canadian government to help resolve 'grave crisis' in Sudan

Catholic New Times, June 20, 2004

OTTAWA (CCN) -- The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has added its voice to growing concerns that the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan could lead to a Rwanda-like genocide.

"We cannot begin to contemplate the human tragedy when we read statistics indicating that over one million persons have been forced to flee their homes due to violence," said Bishop Blaise Morand, chair of the CCCB's human rights committee.

In a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham June 1, Morand noted that the United Nations has referred to Darfur, Sudan's western region, as facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The UN estimates that about 1.2 million people have been forced from their homes by the ethnic conflict in Darfur and are in desperate need of humanitarian aid. International Catholic aid agencies, including Caritas Internationalis, which includes the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, say thousands of people in the region are at risk of starvation and call for urgent action by the world community.