Mennonite
Central
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Health worker Deborah Awut

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MCC in Sudan

Africa

MCC has worked in Sudan for more than 35 years in areas such as education, relief, community development, water and peace. MCC works through church and faith-based partners by providing personnel, training, funding, food and material resources. In southern Sudan, a region worn by years of war and neglect, MCC is helping communities rebuild. MCC has helped to build classrooms and wells and to purchase supplies for medical clinics. In Darfur, where a separate conflict continues, MCC has provided aid such as cooking utensils and blankets.

Sudan has been a country at civil war for most of the time MCC has been present – more than 40 years since independence in 1956. The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005 and the formation of a new Government of National Unity and Government of Southern Sudan effectively ended the long civil war that devastated southern Sudan for more than 20 years. It is still too early to tell how successful this new government will be as several key issues such as wealth sharing (oil) and agreement on borders have yet to be fully settled. Plans for carrying out a census in 2007 were delayed until mid 2008, a critical step in the process for holding democratic elections in 2009.

Southern Sudanese who have been refugees in neighboring countries or displaced internally have started to return to the South, but at a much slower pace than first predicted. Most people have valid concerns that access to such basic needs as schools, water and health facilities need to be in place before they fully return.

A horrific conflict continues in the western Sudan states of North, South and West Darfur. The splintering of rebel groups and increased banditry has added to the violence, increased the displacement of citizens and made delivery of humanitarian aid much more difficult. The Government of Sudan agreed to an expanded UN peacekeeping force but the deployment of this force was not fully implemented. So, while one rejoices that peace in the South was achieved (fragile as it may be) Sudan is still a country at war with itself.

The fact that Sudan is both establishing new National and Southern governments while still at war in other regions identifies several strategic issues:

• Reconciliation between peoples long divided by ethnic, religious and political differences.
Healing from trauma caused by decades of war.
• Demobilizing and disarming the military and militias, finding opportunities for these soldiers to integrate into civilian life, and ensuring that weapons don't make their way to other conflict areas.
• Rehabilitation and development of basic infrastructures, health and education facilities and systems.
• Repatriation and reintegration of more than 4 million displaced people and refugees.
• The role of the church in relation to the emerging national, regional, state and local governments.
• Providing humanitarian assistance to the more than 2.5 million internally displaced by the Darfur conflict.
• Bringing peace and a just settlement to Darfur and other areas of Sudan.

Within this context MCC Sudan works primarily through its long history of relationship with the Sudan Council of Churches, individual churches and faith-based organizations, and also finding ways to increase interfaith collaborations and relationships.

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