‘Death and Displacement in Sudan’ calls attention to Darfur genocide

Despite the recent independence of South Sudan, the genocide in Darfur continues to devastate the region, a Northwestern University professor told a crowd of mostly students Tuesday night.

The event, called “Death and Displacement in Sudan: Evidence of Continuing State-Led Genocide,” featured John Hagan, a sociology professor from Northwestern.

UNC Global and the African Studies Center sponsored the talk.
Hagan said the regions touched by the genocide are being destroyed in every way possible to make sure citizens will not be able to continue to live there.

Hagan, co-author of “Darfur and the Crime of Genocide,” said he has researched the topic mostly through examining eyewitness accounts.

Knowledge about Darfur comes primarily from citizen reports because the government has forced most humanitarian groups out of the country, Hagan said.

More than 50 students and community members attended the event, which took place in the FedEx Global Education Center.

Sophomore global studies major Taiye Adeoti said he attended the event hoping to find out how to get involved in the cause.

“I came because I want to know what can be done on my part, and what is being done by the government,” Adeoti said.

A large part of the event focused on the lack of response from the U.S. government to the crisis, despite continued evidence of mass murder in Sudan.

“Eyewitness reports and surveys done in the regions have led us to believe that over 350,000 lives have been claimed by this genocide so far,” Hagan said.

He said the U.S. media and government have vastly underestimated the number of deaths related to the genocide.

In 2008, then-presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain signed a pact promising to prevent the genocide and work toward ending it.

“It’s now been over three years, and there is little evidence of efforts to document or act on the situations in South Kordofan or Darfur,” Hagan said.

“The problem is that the government has to pick a priority in terms of where we can make a bigger impact,” he said.

At the event, Hagan spoke about the importance of student activist groups, such as UNC’s Students United for Darfur Awareness Now.

Freshman Tsion Ghedamu said she attended because of a general interest in Africa.

“I’m genuinely interested in the ongoing problems in Africa, especially the Darfur genocide,” Ghedamu said.

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