We are eight women leaders representing eight different countries. Five of us are African. We have just returned from the camps of eastern Chad, where we have been meeting the women victims of the Darfur conflict. We want women in Darfur and in Chad to hear that at last their pain is heard and their words are considered at a high political level. We will now make their voices heard in the corridors of power as we travel the world in coming weeks to lobby governments for urgent action. Our voices will get their credibility from the voices of the brave women who were willing to tell us their stories.
We are doing this because we want the killing and the raping in Chad and Darfur to stop. The stories of the woman we met are a stab on the conscience of the world – like the story of Hawa, the woman who saw her only child beheaded in her arms. How can the world sit by and let this happen over and over again?
This month (September 2007) could be a defining moment for the people of Darfur and Chad. World leaders will meet in New York at the General Assembly meetings and at a High Level meeting on Darfur on September 21. The European Union will also consider sending an international military force into eastern Chad. These are welcome steps. The world has looked a way for too long while thousands of people are attacked, raped and killed in Darfur and Chad.
African governments have acted but it is not enough. Despite its limited resources, the African Union has managed to send a significant number of troops to try to keep the peace in Darfur. African governments have kept their troops in Darfur, despite the human losses suffered by the 'AMIS' force, which has often been targeted. A few weeks ago, several African governments pledged more troops for the new joint UN-African Union 'hybrid' force agreed in July. Moreover, a number of African leaders have been involved in the political discussions to bring all the parties to the negotiating table.
We salute these efforts and invite them to do more. African leaders have a duty to make every effort to succeed in this enterprise. The continuing conflict and the mass suffering are an affront to the people of Africa. Succeeding in Darfur will be a defining moment for not only the people of Darfur and Chad, but also for Africa as a whole. The conflict can be solved. But it requires political will, it requires resources, and it requires boldness to move out of the inertia that has lasted too long, towards a lasting solution. African governments can and must do more. They have to provide the leadership that is needed.
The Darfur Chad crisis cannot be allowed to go on for longer. We know that more than 200,000 civilians have died as result of the ongoing conflict. We know that two million people in Darfur have been driven from their homes by government forces, militias and other armed groups. We also know that the world has been talking more than acting over the last four years.
We have travelled to eastern Chad. We have seen the devastation caused by this regional conflict. Despite several peace agreements both in Sudan and Chad, civilians continue to suffer horrific abuses. More people than ever are in need of aid in Darfur and Chad – more than four million – and it is harder than ever for aid workers to help them. Violence is continuing to take place on a daily basis; humanitarian workers are targeted.
As we saw, the Darfur conflict is sending shock waves through the region. In eastern Chad, 230,000 refugees from Darfur are living in camps, and a further 180,000 Chadians have been forced to flee their homes because of rising internal instability there. The situation is insecure and tense. Eastern Chad is in danger of becoming 'another Darfur', a major humanitarian disaster, if the international community does not immediately take steps to solve the internal conflict.
There is a real window of opportunity now for action. We hope that African leaders will make their voices heard loud and clear in their speeches at the UN General Assembly later this month, and make every diplomatic effort to get all sides to agree an immediate ceasefire. Only then will an end be in sight for the long-suffering women of Darfur and Chad.
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Former Nigeria minister for Finance and Distinguished Fellow, Brookings Institute;
Mary Robinson: President, Realizing Rights;
Honorable Asha Hagi Elmi Amin: Member of Somalia Transitional Parliament;
Bineta Diop: Director of Femmes Africa Solidarity;
Dr Herta Deaubler-Gmelin: Member of German parliament;
Musimbi Kanyoro: Secretary General of World YWCA;
Angelique Kidjo: African singer;
Jane Wales: President, World Affairs Council of Northern California
