What about Darfur?

Of course I am glad to hear that Gillian Gibbons, the teacher who was imprisoned for the name given to a teddy bear, is on her way back home to Liverpool. It seems that when two Moslem parliamentarians from the UK negotiated with the Sudanese then things really moved in the right direction. While welcoming the freeing of Gillian Gibbons I cannot help thinking that more pressure should be put on the Sudanese government about the ongoing disaster in Darfur. Maybe it is more complicated than the story about the naming of a teddy bear but it it surely a major humanitarian crisis and (along with Zimbabwe) an issue that the African Union should be taking very seriously.

I have different images of Sudan in my mind, some from my own visit and some from the news about that country that I see and read. I visited Sudan in 1987 during May when it was the festival of Ramadan. I have great memories of the friendly welcome given by many Sudanese people, including an invitation to a Ramadan Breakfast, sitting on the ground within sight of the Nile.