President-Elect Chooses Darfur Advocate as US Ambassador to the United Nations

December 4, 2008

The Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy commends President-Elect Barack Obama for appointing Susan Rice as the US ambassador to the United Nations. A former Brookings Institution senior fellow and an expert on foreign policy, Ms. Rice has publicly voiced that ending the genocide in Darfur is one of her top foreign policy priorities.

Ms. Rice supports imposing financial penalties, economic sanctions on Sudan's oil sector, freezing assets, and pursuing military intervention, if it becomes necessary, to force President Omar Al-Bashir to address and end the atrocities in Darfur. The Damanga Coalition supports Ms. Rice's outline for action, and believes that her military intervention under "the responsibility to protect" is necessary at this point in time to end the 5-year long genocide. As the situation in Darfur increases to dangerous new levels, Damanga views intervention as the most efficient way to end the atrocities. In 2008 alone, UN accessibility within the region has decreased 65%, 11 deaths, and 172 assaults on, humanitarian workers have been reported, and an additional 170  staff abductions have been reported throughout the conflict region. Thus, it is clear that UNAMID and other humanitarian efforts are limited and increasingly weak in combating the atrocities, and therefore, intervention must immediately be pursued to end the genocide.