While many are focused on the Israel-Hamas conflict and the Russia-Ukraine invasion, members of the Congressional Black Caucus call attention to the crises that are taking place in Sudan and the Congo.
U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., told theGrio, “We always uplift and talk about and center the western hegemonic imperial power structure, which tends to be white nations like Israel and Ukraine and others.”
“Whereas we completely ignore or suppress what’s happened in the Black and brown countries,” he added. “That’s all part of the white supremacist narrative.”
U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-CA, who is on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told theGrio, “Africa always seems like an afterthought.”
“What’s happening in the Sudan [and] Congo is tragic,” she said.
“Sudan is involved in ethnic cleansing. We are doing all that we can really to work with allies [and] other democratic countries in Africa to try to cut into some of that,” she added. “But, we are challenged because our State Department is under-resourced.”
On April 15, 2023, a war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, causing a humanitarian crisis for millions of Sudanese asylum seekers and refugees.
The war has displaced more than 3.3 million people, and it has exacerbated the economic and political instability issues in the region.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is another African nation that is experiencing a similar plight.
The country has seen an uptick in violence as militant groups fight over territory and natural resources, forcing citizens to flee to surrounding countries for safety.
The crisis in the DRC is expected to worsen during the country’s national elections slated for this month.
Rep. Kamlager-Dove told theGrio that the U.S. is “not at capacity in terms of staffing when it comes to USAID to be able to provide humanitarian aid and help refugees that are in the Sudan… maybe close to a dozen African embassies don’t have an ambassador.”
She added that terrorist organizations have also made it a challenge for the U.S. to assist citizens in Sudan and the Congo.
“We have to deal with malign actors like al-Shabab, ISIS, and other groups, terrorist organizations that really are focused on destabilizing that part of Africa,” she continued.
Bowman told theGrio, “It’s essential for us to uplift and focus on what’s happening in Africa because genocide anywhere is evil and inhumane and unacceptable.”
He added, “African lives are as valuable and precious and sacred as any other life and we need to get to a place as a human race where we are not solving disagreements with war and genocide,”
Kamlager-Dove told theGrio, that “Congress needs to get its act together” to tackle issues plaguing African nations.
The California Congresswoman said that House Republicans, who make up the majority, “Do not care about our national security.”
“The fact that they refuse to take up real supplementals, trying to conflate border security with national security supplementals and ramming policy through a budgetary process…shows that they’re not serious,” she said.
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