Current Events Summary 12/20

Although not widely talked about in the American News, the eastern portion of Africa is facing a great deal of strife and conflict. Many people are aware that there is some sort of genocide in Darfur, perpetuated by the Sudanese government. More than 200,000 people have died since the beginning of the war, four years ago. The UN has begun to take steps to help the situation, by planning to send a peacekeeping force, 26,000 strong. They are also implementing stages to give aid to the Darfuri that need it most. The Sudanese government agreed to the UN's suggestions, but then did everything in its power to prevent them from happening. Violence has gotten so bad in some areas that the UN's children's fund has called for the set up of 'child safety zones' at the cost of 1.5 million dollars. It is estimated that 60% of Mogadishu's residents have fled their homes. Malnourishment, high risk of infection, exhaustion, and emotional trauma are very common cases of children in Somalia. Somalia has not had a functioning national government since 1991.
In Ethiopia, locals accuse soldiers of fighting an insurgency by burning villages, raping woman, and killing people "like goats". Ethiopia's prime minister says the soldiers are fighting a separatist movement, and denies that the soldiers have committed such atrocities. Little other information is available because the government gave explicit orders not to talk to international reporters. In Tanzania, the government is accused of ignoring the killing of albinos, with four deaths in the past three months. There are about 270,000 albinos in Tanzania's population of 35 million. Some witch doctors believe they can make a person rich by using albino body parts. It is also believed that albinos are strange ghost like creatures. One body was exhumed and found to be missing limbs.
Sudan's former southern rebels say that they will rejoin the national coalition government, ending a two decade long war, but experts say the possibility of war still remains. The fact that despite the massive amounts of violence and death and destruction, two previously opposing parties can come to some sort of agreement, no matter how temporary it is expected to be, shows that there is still a small glimmer of hope for the warring nations in East Africa.