A rally, sponsored by The University of Winnipeg’s Global College, African Students’ Association and Lost Boys & Girls of Sudan, will be held on Sunday, April 29, 2007 at 1:30 p.m. to raise awareness about the humanitarian and security crises in Darfur. Concerned citizens are invited to gather at the Manitoba Legislative Building to recognize the estimated 400,000 civilians massacred and 2 million people displaced in Darfur, a region the size of France in the western part of Sudan. The rally will raise public awareness about the situation in Darfur and join other Canadian cities in calling for the full deployment of the proposed 20,000-member hybrid international peacekeeping force to protect the civilians of Darfur.
“Winnipeg aspires to be a human rights city,” says Tara O’Connor, Community Integration Project Team Coordinator for The Manitoba Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan. “The situation in Darfur is currently the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Let’s acknowledge the human rights violations taking place in Darfur and do something to protect the people of that region. Through awareness and action change is possible.”
“The people of Darfur face the gravest human rights abuses, and as human circumstances in Darfur deteriorate, the world watches them dying.” says Michael Nuul Mayan, President of the African Students’ Association, University of Winnipeg.
April 29th is Global Darfur Day under the Globe for Darfur initiative. In nearly 300 cities around the world, people will raise their voices in protest to end the humanitarian and security crises in Darfur. The victims of the attacks are mostly Darfurian civilians targeted by government armed Arab militias such as the Janjaweed. In Alberta, protestors are walking from Calgary to Edmonton in the Walk for Darfur initiative 400,000 Steps for 400,000 Forgotten, and many other protest rallies and benefit concerts will be held worldwide.
Globe for Darfur is a global initiative with participating cities including Toronto, Montréal, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, London, U.K., Berlin, Vienna, Tel Aviv, Abuja, Nigeria, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
For more information, please contact Tara O’Connor at 204.786.9990.
