United States evangelicals and anti-Islamic activist helped birth South Sudan. The U.S. played a key role in helping negotiate the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between Sudan and Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM) that laid groundwork for South Sudan’s 2011 independence referendum and secession. The world has abandoned South Sudan refugees now that the country is in the grip of a massive humanitarian crisis as its war and displacements there continue.
America has wrought the world’s newest country and its woes. Political conflicts compounded by economic troubles has caused massive displacement, raging violence and dire food shortages there. Over 5.1 million people are in need of aid, facing hunger due to economic collapse and agricultural conditions in the South and Sudan.
The U.S. has been intervening in Sudan affairs for decades. Over the years, American politicians and Christian evangelicals have perpetrated hoaxes and fraud on Sudan. Because of America’s foreign policy interference, South Sudan is a country in chaos.
While the U.S.undermined the North, policymakers sided for splitting Sudan. Since the conflict began, one in three people have been displaced. Millions are forced to flee their homes escaping to neighboring countries in search of safety; South Sudan is now the third-most fled country in the world. The country has little formal infrastructure — roads, buses, buildings — which make transport of food and supplies difficult. Many towns and villages become inaccessible during the annual rainy season due to closed washed out roads or lack of roads altogether.
Now, the region is a disaster and needs America’s positive help and intervention. A landlocked country of 12 million, South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, but the SPLM, the ruling political party that originally led the way for the South’s independence, is divided and fighting for power. In December 2013, after South Sudan’s president accused his vice president of an attempted coup fighting erupted in the streets of Juba the capital, The fighting has affected displaced millions of civilians in Africa’s largest refugee crisis. More than 1.5 million people have crossed into neighboring countries including Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
A handful of peace agreements have been signed over the course of the war, but they’ve been repeatedly violated. The country’s economy is in crisis — the South Sudanese pound has declined in value, and cost of goods and services has skyrocketed. The inflation rate is the world’s highest. Violence includes targeted attacks, gender-based violence, kidnappings and murders. Burning and pillaging of homes and livestock is rampant. According to UNICEF, over half the country’s children are out of school. The country’s children can’t learn, its people can’t work, and farmers can’t plant.
After America’s ploys to divide the Sudanese, Sudan’s northern power wants Trump to uphold President Obama’s lifting of odious sanctions. Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir wants this policy to continue as the U.S. lifts to sanctions and recently praised President Trump as “straightforward.” Trump needs to do more business with Sudan.
“Sudan still needs U.S. investors to come,” said Osama Faisal, minister of investment.
The Trump administration should lift sanctions against Sudan and fill African posts at Sate and the Security Council.
Over the years, white mainstream media has demonized Sudan through various campaigns, many of which were discovered as partially or completely fake. Do you remember CBS’s “60 Minutes” show revealing American donors providing monies to free black slaves? In the show’s report, “Mass ‘Redemptions’ May Create More Slavery,” the newscast ripped the credibility of “slavery” campaigns. Many Americans were duped into donating $47 per head to “buy back” African slaves. Nowadays Southern Sudanese flee to the North of Sudan for sanctuary.
In a press conference this month, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby voiced “good impressions” of the North and its hosting of refugees and provision of support and assistance. Welby affirmed “fruitful discussions” with Al-Bashir, as well as with Foreign Minister Professor Ibrahim Ghandour, and said that Western reports on Sudan are “confused.”
It’s time Americans promote positive actions toward all the Sudanese.
William Reed is publisher of “Who’s Who in Black Corporate America” and available for projects via Busxchng@his.com.