Kentucky bishops urge more U.S. efforts to stop Darfur genocide

Published: 2006-07-14

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNS) -- Kentucky's Catholic bishops have urged more U.S. effort to halt the continuing genocide in Sudan's Darfur region. In a statement released July 11, the bishops said President George W. Bush and the Congress "must do everything possible to prevent this tragic and unnecessary loss of innocent human life." About 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes and a total of 3.5 million face the risk of starvation as government-backed Arab militias have staged repeated raids and attacks on the mainly black population of Darfur in western Sudan. An estimated 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict in the past three years. The statement by the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the public policy arm of the state's bishops, praised the Bush administration and Congress for actions they have taken to stem the crisis in the past. It noted that Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice was instrumental in getting the U.N. Security Council to adopt a U.S.-sponsored resolution to place U.N. peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

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