George Clooney's plea for help for Sudan comes a step closer to reality

Thanks Henway for this:

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White House approves new refugee aid to Sudan

WBOY-TV

updated 4/3/2012 6:52:57 PM ET

By ANNE GEARAN
AP National Security Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is "gravely concerned" about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and South Sudan and is sending up to $26 million to help refugees displaced by the African border conflict, an administration spokesman said Tuesday.

President Barack Obama authorized the emergency relief for refugees from the conflict in two Sudanese border states. The money will go to the United Nations humanitarian agency effort to provide food and protection to some 140,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled bombing and desperate conditions along the border.

A day earlier, Obama had asked South Sudan President Salva Kiir in a telephone conversation to ensure that South Sudan's military exercises maximum restraint and is not involved in or supporting fighting along the border, the White House said. Obama urged a quick agreement on the flow of oil, the issue that has brought the newly separate countries close to war.

The refugees have mostly fled into neighboring South Sudan and Ethiopia. Sudan has refused to allow aid agencies into the region.

The refugee plight was the subject of a meeting between Obama and actor-activist George Clooney at the White House last month.

The U.S. Agency for International Development estimated last month that 250,000 people are on the brink of a famine.

Clooney urged Obama and other leaders to act quickly to bring in new humanitarian aid before the onset of a rainy season that will make it impossible for aid workers to reach some refugees.

"The United States is gravely concerned by the situation in South Kordofan and Blue Nile" in Sudan along the South Sudan border, White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said Tuesday. "We continue to call upon the government of Sudan to allow full and unfettered access for international humanitarian agencies."

Sudan is bombing oil-rich regions of South Sudan in order to scare away American and Chinese investors, a South Sudan official said Monday. The Sudan government in Khartoum said that was "false and unfounded."

Oil-producing South Sudan split from the rest of the largely Arab country last year. Landlocked South Sudan shut down oil production in January, saying that its northern neighbor had stolen oil. Thu shutdown has deprived both countries of a critical revenue stream.

Excellent news!

Let's hope the UN move QUICKLY to create aid corridors before the rains come...........sure it's easier said than done with all the red tape that flies around, and I understand that all the countries need to agree. Great start tho..

That's really good news.

George & John did a good job highlighting
the need so well.

This success, George, has the same value of 1000 Oscars! you are a great man!

Job well done George. Now maybe these poor Sudanese will have some food dropped in and have a chance to at least tend to their crops before the rains come.

Thanks Katie for posting the good news.

Thanks Katie and Hen! Great news George and John!

lelacorb wrote:This success, George, has the same value of 1000 Oscars! you are a great man!

Thats why a lot of stinkers are coming out of the woodworks to cry fraud at George's success. Those Dictator supporters! If there's any justice, they will see whats coming to them and that dictator will be squashed like a bug under a rug.

Great news, hope everything they need actually arrives.

Some battles *can* be won. Keep fighting the good fight George and John! Thanks for bringing the story over here katiedot.

His perseverance paid off. Great job George!

RIGHT!

not good situation...


Obama says killing must end in Sudan
(AFP) – 3 hours ago
WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama said on Monday that the "killing of innocents" must end in Sudan and South Sudan, after weeks of border fighting in contested regions and tension between the two states.
"In Darfur, Abyei, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, the killing of innocents must come to an end. The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan must have the courage to negotiate because the people of Sudan and South Sudan deserve peace," Obama said at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington.
Washington had earlier condemned a Sudanese air raid on South Sudan and urged an "immediate" halt to hostilities and a return to talks.
"The United States strongly condemns Sudan's military incursion into South Sudan yesterday and calls for the immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of all Sudanese armed militia from South Sudan," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland in a statement.
"Sudan must immediately halt the aerial and artillery bombardment in South Sudan by the Sudan Armed Forces. Sudan and South Sudan must end all military support for rebel groups within the other country," she added.
Sudanese bombs fell Monday on a key bridge and a market in the state capital of Bentiu, killing at least two children, prompted heavy gunfire from Southern soldiers hoping to shoot down Khartoum's warplanes.
Nuland said Washington recognized South Sudan's right to self-defense and urged it to exercise restraint in its reaction to Sudan's attack in Unity State.
Obama on Friday sent a videotaped message to the people of the two countries called for an end to fighting and negotiations between the leaders of the two countries to settle their conflict.
Border clashes between Sudan and South Sudan have escalated with waves of air strikes hitting the South, and Juba seizing the Heglig oil hub on April 10.
Since the invasion, production at Heglig has been shut and facilities there are leaking. Each side accused the other of damaging the oil infrastructure.
The Heglig violence was the worst since South Sudan won independence in July after a 1983-2005 civil war in which some two million people died.
Tensions have gradually mounted over the disputed border and other unresolved issues.
South Sudan broke away from the north following a referendum under a 2005 peace deal that ended a two-decade civil war in which more than two million people died.

It just never ends does it ?
Man can do such wonderful things and such terrible things.

Oh dear.

I thought it was just yesterday that the South Sudanese Government ordered its troops back from occupying Heglig, one of the oil points in the country, in an effort to get a peaceful resolution

Joanna wrote:It just never ends does it ?
Man can do such wonderful things and such terrible things.

YUP!!!!!