I'm on my way to Sudan. After working to stop slavery and genocide there for what seems like a lifetime - although it has only been a few years — I am eager, if a bit nervous, to meet the people I’ve been fighting for. To see the country that has occupied my thoughts for so long.
There's a genocide being committed in the Western Darfur region of the country by the Islamic government and the Arab militia known as the janjaweed. In the South, they've been conducting village raids for decades - killing the men, and taking the women and children as slaves. The American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) does a lot of advocacy work for the Sudanese and I work with several Sudanese survivors. There's a shaky peace agreement between the government and the South, as represented by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). I'm in Zurich now. Tomorrow I will meet up with John Eibner, Gunnar Wiebalck from Christian Solidarity International (CSI), Joe Madison — who I know by reputation only — and his wife Sherry, as well as Simon Deng — a former Sudanese child slave with whom I work. It will be Simon's first time back in Sudan since he became a refugee. I'll be meeting them in the airport tomorrow morning and flying to Nairobi, where we will spend the night. Then we'll take a small plane to Southern Sudan. We'll be staying in the villages which are guarded by the SPLA.