On Friday, Sudanese from across the US came together to demonstrate in front of the White House. Check out a slideshow of photos from the event.
ABC news covered the event:
On Friday, a small group of Sudanese immigrants gathered in front of the White House to express their disappointment in Obama for not being active enough on Darfur from the outset of his presidency.
“I voted for him,” said protestor William Deng, of the Southern Sudan Project. “And I did it because I knew he was going to do something about Darfur. But now he’s silent, he’s never done anything. And I feel, I regret that he doesn’t do anything about our issues.”
At the event we delivered over 86,000 signatures to the citizen open letter to President Obama. A member of the Administration came out to accept the signatures and hear from the group.
Dozens of US activists and members of the Sudanese diaspora marched in front of the White House on Friday just days before two members of the US Senate arrived in Khartoum to meet with top aides of President Omer Al-Bashir.
Protestors held signs saying “Save Lives Now”, “El Bashir & NCP to ICC”, “Restore Aid Now,” and “End the Genocide.”
Check out coverage from Voice of America:
And a post from our partners at Enough!
Photo credit Natasha Ghent-Rodriguez.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
Tags: action, Darfur, Events, President Obama, Washington DC, White House
cecilcrasto says:
What we need is more awareness of this horrible tragedy so that more people can demand action from their governments to end this crisis. Churches can definitely help in this regard since they can reach about 80% of the population in the U.S! However, almost all of them are consumed with only fighting gay marriage while ignoring far greater societal issues like gross human rights violations and even genocide!
I know, as I have been trying to get evangelicals in Canada mostly, and some in the U.S. to talk to their congregations / listeners about this issue but the only response I have got so far from them is either lip service or no response at all. It is strange that those that claim a “relationship” with Jesus as opposed to others that practise the Christian “religion” are the ones doing nothing or very little about Darfur compared to their political meddling when it comes to gay marriage or reciting the Lord’s prayer in the Ontario Legislature to the exclusion of the prayers of other faiths!
They may excuse themselves for doing nothing, if anything at all, as this is happening in another sovereign country. Would they take the same stance if the genocides in Nazi Germany or Rwanda were happening today? Do they keep silent simply because the people being killed are Muslims, the enemy of the Jews – “god’s chosen people” as most of them believe? Or is it simply because it conveniently fits their theology that there will always be pain and suffering in the world till Christ’s return. So to continually strive to make the world a better place actually threatens the way biblical prophesies are supposed to play out! Furthermore, if there were no suffering people in the world, would we even need a god? They need suffering in the world to justify the gospel message!
Why did some of them think, initially at-least with regard to Iraq, that sometimes war is justified. Unfortunately, their support for a misadventure in Iraq where a war shouldn’t have taken place in in the first place, prevents any military action from being undertaken in Darfur where this time it is actually justified!
Sissy says:
I’m so glad to becomeing a part of your cause & I stand behind you 100%
Thanks for having a place where we can have a voice in some of these very important issues
thank you
Sissy Moss
cybergrace says:
Really great to see Darfuri faces and hear Darfuri voices at the front of the Save Darfur justice struggle. Thank you, a very important growth of the movement. People would love to hear them if you wanted to do a forum of mostly Darfuri voices, esp. those representing NYC Darfur groups and those in a leadership role in Darfur and/or NYC. Well, just a suggestion, I know your working very hard and THANK YOU!
p.s. cecilcrasto my church is born again AND active around Darfur — House of the Lord, Brooklyn, NY represents!