“The equivalent of a tsunami every five months….”

The displaced children of Darfur

While the Tsunami was a horrendous natural disaster that dominated the news headlines during the holidays and beyond and Iraq continues to be a disastrous mistake of man’s own doing, I and many others’ attention was distracted away from the tremendous human suffering that continues largely unabated in the Sudan and other parts of Africa. I’m embarrassed to admit that it wasn’t until I read the editorial “Thousands Died in Africa Yesterday” in Sunday’s New York Times that I was motivated to return to this tragedy on the site.

Here’s one line from the editorial to consider: “In the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is anything but, some 1,000 people die every day of preventable diseases like malaria and diarrhea. That’s the equivalent of a tsunami every five months, in that one country alone.” Will Bush join his stalwart Iraq ally Tony Blair in his call of pushing for more help for troubled African states?

More information and charity links:

“If We Return, We Will Be Killed” – Consolidation of Ethnic Cleansing in Darfur, Sudan

Darfur: A Genocide We Can Stop

Save Darfur

The Darfur Information Center

The Best Way to help provide relief in Western Sudan and Chad

Crisis in Sudan: How You Can Help Those in Need

Previous Different Kitchen posts on the Darfur tragedy:

Darfur 101 and Bush’s not-so-secret voting bloc

What will the world do this time?

“Democracy Is Like Sex….”

The continuing tragedy in Sudan

Rangel stands up over the Sudan tragedy.

But let’s not forget what some have also termed a genocide in Northern Uganda or the atrocities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where an estimated 2.5 million people have been killed in a bloody civil war since 1998.

I just blog about it but how we do get others to shine some light on the places beyond Iraq, Iran, Syria and North Korea in desperate need of help or reform?