Is Africa Dying Before Our Eyes?
Entire countries are struggling for survival. Does the world want to help? Is it too late? Has God cursed the continent?
We have written before about the crisis of western Sudan, where armed militia known as "Janjaweed" (literally, "devils on horseback") raped, murdered and pillaged the people of Darfur. The horror and death continues with no end in sight.Sudan's government at first denied anything was happening. Then it denied that it licensed or abetted the Janjaweed. Fearing international sanctions imposed by the United Nations, Khartoum (the seat of Sudan's government) finally allowed humanitarian organizations to enter the country to begin to care for the IDPs (internally displaced persons). And Sudan's leaders managed to get the Janjaweed to ratchet down the attacks over which they supposedly "had no control."
U.S. President George W. Bush and then Secretary of State Colin Powell correctly called what was happening a "genocide." But the UN refused to characterize it as such, which would require economic sanctions on the fragile Sudanese economy. The United States subsequently backed off from that language, perhaps because Khartoum has cooperated in the war on terror, providing the CIA with intelligence about terrorists in Muslim countries.
But they are still dying in Darfur. And it's not been easy even to count the victims. The survivors have been hesitant to talk, but the story of the inhumanity is becoming clear.
Marc Lacey of The New York Time s paints a gruesome picture: "Darfur's dead have been tossed into the bottoms of wells, dumped into mass graves, interred in sandy cemeteries and crudely cremated. Children have been snatched from the arms of their mothers and thrown into fires, villagers dragged on the ground behind horses and camels by ropes strung around their necks" ("The Mournful Math of Darfur: The Dead Don't Add Up," May 19, 2005).
Another New York Times writer, Nicholas Kristof, tells of nine young boys the Janjaweed captured, stripped and horribly mutilated, before shooting them and throwing them into the village well as a warning to others to get out (cited by Nat Hentoff, "Darfur: How Many More Will Have to Die?" Jewish World Review, June 20, 2005).
There wasn't either time or means to issue death certificates whereby an accounting could be made for the number who perished. Census figures for Sudan are woefully out of date, so they are no help either.
Many more dead than tsunami victims
Some died in the process of fleeing. Others have died from diseases directly related to malnutrition and to the lack of adequate water. The Coalition for International Justice, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), put together a sophisticated estimate, based upon a combination of sources: 400,000 dead, with people continuing to die at a rate of 500 per day.
Salih Booker, executive director of the Washington-based Africa Action, puts the figure much higher. She says that unless there is immediate help, "up to a million people may be dead by the end of this year" (ibid., emphasis added). If this estimate is anywhere near accurate, the manmade disaster of Darfur has surpassed the death toll of the "Christmas tsunami" of 2004, which so grieved the entire world.
The international community, led by the United States, is mounting the second-largest relief effort in the history of mankind to help the Darfurians. It is second only to relief for survivors of the tsunami. But the Darfur project is severely underfunded, as many are weary of the never-ending need for donations. (Even the contributions for tsunami relief are falling far short of promises made in the emotion of the moment.) Reflecting on the growing phenomenon of donor fatigue, Adam Koons of Save the Children USA lamented, "How many times can the international community bail a country out?" (op. cit., Lacey).
Complicating matters, it will soon begin to rain in Darfur. Normally, rain means life, for it brings the hope of another crop. But a relief organization's delivery of food that would take hours before the rains will take days afterwards. (And, trucks are in constant danger of being hijacked and robbed by roving bandits.) Tragically, up until two years ago, this was one of the most productive farming areas of Africa. Now it is largely paralyzed, all because of man's inhumanity to man.
How did it happen? Competing religious ideas, jealousies between rival tribes and an oppressive government all contributed to this now out-of-control disaster.
And, those who are still alive are dying in a different way: Their hope is lost. They are unable to work or to provide for their families; they see no chance of returning to their homes or lands; they are unsure that they will ever feel safe again; they have no guarantee that they will have food or water in the coming weeks and months—and they have no control over their destiny.
Twice as many dying in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
It is horrifying to see the world's powerful nations quibble over words, while the people of Darfur die. But an even greater tragedy is playing out slightly to the southwest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Warlords, each with his private militia, battle among themselves for control of the country's considerable natural resource wealth.
But the wealth is doing little good to the Congolese who are perishing in the fighting. They are dying at more than twice the rate of Darfurians at 1,000 per day. Inexplicably, this monumental disaster is barely mentioned in the world's media. There is plenty of time and space to report on celebrity and political gossip, but next to none for this crying need.
Even though the problems persist in Darfur, it at least has caught the attention of many. Not so for the Congo. Why don't we hear about this heartbreaking catastrophe? Have the world's nations simply decided that there is no way to stop the fighting, the killing and the dying from disease and starvation?
An entire nation facing extinction
Let's now travel south nearly to the bottom of the continent to the tiny nation of Swaziland, population 1 million. That's not a very large number of people in the context of the rest of Africa. But the problem facing Swaziland is huge in proportion. Therein lies the story of this African tragedy.
A mind-numbing 426,000 of the million citizens are infected with HIV or AIDS. David Blair of The Telegraph (United Kingdom) writes, "Already, one Swazi in every 15 is a child orphaned by AIDS. In five years AIDS orphans... will make up an eighth of the population. An army of orphans can be found in every town and village ("Will This Be the First Country to Die From AIDS?" June 4, 2005).
It will only grow worse. As many of our readers are aware, a dark pall sits over the entire African continent, which is looking at the staggering figure of 80 million AIDS deaths by 2025.
Not under a special curse
Some mistakenly assume that God has cursed Africa for the sins of its ancestors. Of course, this reasoning is false. Such critics are unaware of or overlook the wealthy African empires of ages past. They also forget that the continent thrived as part of the British and other European empires (even though some exploited the people and the land).
A major cause of the current suffering is the dictatorial rule of a few selfish leaders, who enrich themselves at the expense of their people. Additional problems stem from religious superstitions and a lack of education. These lead to sin, which, in turn, leads to suffering.
Mankind is hurting itself in appalling ways. Just as Jesus said to the citizens of Judea in the first century who struggled to understand a tragedy at that time, "unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke:13:3I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.).
James wrote to the scattered Israelite tribes in the first century, taking his readers to task for the suffering their peoples were causing. "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James:4:1-3 [1] From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
[2] Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
[3] Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.).
The U.S. government is beginning to funnel its aid through NGOs, rather than through corrupt government officials, to help meet the immediate physical needs. You may choose to contribute to them too. But the needs are too great and the momentum too overpowering for all the wealth in the world to change the course of all the disasters unfolding in Africa.
We must pray that God will send His Son to rescue the dying and to end the evils of this world forever. "Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" is more than a song and more than a sentiment. It must be the cry of the heart of every believer. Let a chorus of such prayers cascade onto God's throne every day, until He gives Christ the order, "Let's roll!" and our Savior brings true relief.
Read the good news of how God plans to do just that in the booklet The Gospel of the Kingdom . And join this true relief effort. WNP
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