Press release/notice 9/25 noon-4 rally for Sudan's targeted civilians

[E. Wei]

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Rally near the United Nations

to stop Genocide, Rape, & Human Rights Abuses in Sudan

 

Contact:  Mohamed Ebead (718) 415 1970 and Omar Abdul Sawe (863) 602 7925

 

On Sunday, September 25, 2016, members of the Sudanese Diaspora from Darfur, Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains, and other ethnic-African regions will gather with American activists at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza (East 47^th Street at 1^st Avenue, noon-4 ) to express grave concerns about the ongoing genocide and war on civilians in the Darfur, Nuba Mountains, & Blue Nile regions of Sudan as well as massive human rights violations throughout Sudan.

 

Since January, 2016, Darfur’s Jebel Marra area has suffered waves of violent attacks by government-funded Janjaweed militias, now called "Rapid Support Forces”(RSF), and aerial bombings by government-tied warplanes. Hundreds of people have been killed, and almost 200,000 displaced by destruction of their villages: delivery of humanitarian aid has not been permitted.  Also in 2016, with renewed intensity this month (9/2016), the RSF launched attacks on villages around Kutum (North Darfur), causing death, destruction and displacement.

Since 2011, government forces have surrounded the Nuba Mountains, indiscriminately bombing and killing thousands of civilians, forcing them to live in caves and preventing delivery of aid: Sudan’s president announced that he would starve them as he had in the past.

Blue Nile also has been targeted by constant deadly attacks and, since mid-August, suffers from a cholera epidemic that the government knowlingly is not addressing.  

Throughout these regions, schools, hospitals, IDP camps, and even UN forces have been attacked, and               women and girls have been raped and sexually abused.

Sudan’s government has banned even Doctors Without Borders from all but one site in Sudan.

 

On September 21st, 2016, the International Federation for Human Rights reported to the United Nations Human Rights Committee on research confirming that the government of Sudan lacks the “political will to take concrete steps to implement its international legal obligations with regards to fundamental human rights.”

 

The purpose of the September 25th Rally is to demand that all United Nations member states, and the United Nations Security Council, take the following steps at a minimum:

• Exert pressure on Sudan's president to immediately cease violent attacks and aerial bombing in Darfur & the Nuba Mountains, and to permit unhindered humanitarian access to the needy in Darfur, Nuba Mountains, and Blue Nile
• Exert pressure on Sudan’s president to immediately release all political prisoners or at least provide humane conditions - students, politicians, lawyers, journalists & human rights activists, as well as Internally-Displaced-Persons (IDPs) arrested for 7/2016 meetings w/ America’s Special Envoy to Sudan
• Exert pressure on Sudan’s president to declare an official State of Emergency in the Blue Nile region & surrounding areas to inhibit the spreading cholera epidemic; exert pressure on Sudan’s government to permit admission of doctors, medical organizations and supplies as needed
• Make all efforts to bring long awaited justice to the victims of genocide in Darfur and Sudan at large, respecting the fact that Sudan’s president, and some of his staff, have been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity

What:     Rally to urge UN leaders to end genocide, rape & human rights abuses in Sudan

When:   Sunday, September 25^th, 2016

Time:     noon to 4:00 pm

Where:  Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza - East 47th Street at 1st Avenue, NYC

                                   

Rally Sponsors:   Darfur People’s Association of New York, Nuba Mountains International Association, Blue Nile People’s Association, Sudanese Opposition Forces in the U.S., Sudanese Marginalized Forum in the U.S., Darfur Human Rights of U.S., Darfur Associations’ Alliance in the U.S.

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