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By Betsy Hille
Special to the Rappahannock News
A refugee turned activist from the conflictplagued region of Western Sudan will speak at the Rappahannock library, Friday April 14 at 8 p.m. Mohamed Adam Yahya, from the Darfur region of Sudan, is co-founder and chairman of the Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy (DCFD) www.damjmga.org. Yahya volunteers with others to alert the world to the abuses unfolding in Western Sudan, focusing much of his time and energy speaking at rallies and conferences across the country.
The conflict in Darfur began when the National Islamic Party took control of the government by “Coup” in 1989, and allied with Arab militia raiders, known as “janjaweed”, cleared civilians from areas considered disloyal to the Sudanese government.
After years of conflict, today Darfur is acknowledged to be a humanitarian and human rights tragedy of the first order. The situation is rapidly deteriorating: atrocities continue, people are dying in large numbers from malnutrition and disease, and a new famine is feared.
According to reports by the World Food Program, the United Nations and the Coalition for International Justice, 3.5 million people are now hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, and 400,000 people have died in Darfur so far. The international community is failing to protect civilians or to influence the Sudanese government to do so.
Thus, The Damanga Coalition (DFCD) was formed to promote the human rights of the people of Darfur, Sudan and elsewhere in the world. Explained Yahya, “DFCD was the first group to reach out to the international community about the genocide in western Sudan and has been demanding a cessation of violence and genocide for more than 10 years. We educate civilians about their rights to freedom, equality and participation in government. We seek to aid the disempowered, including the victims of the Darfur conflict, so they can work for the preservation of their communities.”
What does the word ‘damanga’ mean? The
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