MCC aids war-torn Sudan

Mennonite Central Committee
Friday, 12 January 2001

Civil war has raged in Sudan for 17 years. In a conflict fueled by complex political and historical divisions, the Khartoum-based government of the primarily Arab and Muslim north is fighting rebels in the Christian and animist south.

Two million people have died in the war, 4 million are internally displaced and nearly 400,000 are refugees in other countries.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) began work in Sudan in 1972. At times, violence has made it impossible for workers to live there, but MCC currently places volunteers in both northern and southern Sudan. MCC also funds education for Sudanese refugees in Kenya through the Global Family sponsorship program. For more information about Global Family, contact MCC in the United States at (717) 859-1151 or e-mail mailbox@mcc.org; in Canada, call (204) 261-6381 or e-mail canada@mennonitecc.ca.

In 1993, MCC donated 350 metric tons of millet to Kakuma Refugee Camp, where the "lost boys" currently coming to the United States were living. Natalie Wing, an MCC volunteer working in Kakuma at the time, wrote in a report, "New arrivals appear at the gates every day."

In recent years, MCC has provided the following material resources to Sudan:

1999: More than $64,600 Cdn./$42,000 U.S. for local purchase of food and livestock.

1998: More than $660,000 Cdn./$429,000 U.S. worth of food, seeds and tools; 17 metric tons of clothing, 35 metric tons of soap and 30.5 metric tons of MCC canned beef.

1997: $62,070 Cdn./$40,345 U.S. for local purchase of sorghum and beans.

1995: Soap, clothing and blankets worth $507,700 Cdn./$330,000 U.S.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org