The Men, Women and Children Who Suffer...

As militia attacks continue to happen in villages in Sudan’s West Darfur region, dozens of children 12 to 18 are reported missing, especially boys.

UNICEF and its UN partners sent an assessment mission to the towns of Sirba and Abu Surouj following government-backed militia attacks in West Darfur’s northern corridor earlier this month. The team found that thousands of residents had fled their homes in the towns after multiple buildings were burned in the attacks.

The UN has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and warned that the region needs many more peacekeepers as the security situation in the region deteriorated sharply in the past two months.

As the violence continues and remains unabated, people's lives...men, women and innocent children's lives are even more at risk. In these situations, the innnocent children so unfortunately become part of the many lost and unaccounted victims of war.

In Congo, the World Vision reported that men, women, and children continue to lose their lives from rebel attacks. There is, however, a glimmer of hope for this nation with the news that a peace agreement was forged between the government and several rebel groups.

This is indeed welcome news for a country besieged for the past 15 months, with armed conflict that resulted in the massive displacement of people — more than 400,000 in North Kivu province, increased gender-based violence, malnutrition among children, school dropout rates, and rising numbers of wounded civilians.

I once posed the question "When will this ever end?" when I posted an entry on Darfur several months ago. I don't think it will...not for as long as there are people who are selfish and greedy for power. All peace-loving people can do is to try and aid the victims the best way they can and this can only go far with powerful organizations and nations taking action and putting pressure on the warring groups and nations to achieve some peace.