Canadians Ship 3,000 MT YSPs to Sudan

WINNIPEG - Nov 17/04 - SNS -- A shipment of 3,000 metric tons (MT) of split yellow peas will be shipped to the Darfur region of Sudan by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

Agricore United will begin bagging the peas this week in Carman, Manitoba. From there, the peas will travel across the country to Montreal, where they will be loaded onto a container ship for their voyage across the ocean to Port Sudan. Trucks will transport them inland to Darfur.

"We've determined that a supply of split peas is the most suitable shipment of food products that we can provide from Canada" says Jim Cornelius, Executive Director of Canadian Foodgrains Bank. "The amount we're shipping should be enough to provide the pulse requirement for all of the displaced people in the Darfur region for a month." This shipment will be funded, in part, by a $2.8 Million contribution from CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency).

The situation in Darfur continues to be quite grim. According to UN reports, 1.6 million IDPs (internally displaced persons) are estimated to be in the Darfur region, as part of an estimated 2 million total conflict affected persons. Approximately 70,000 people have been killed. The conflict began in February 2003 when two rebel groups took up arms over alleged unjust treatment by the Sudanese government and ethnic Arab countrymen. Pro-government militias called Janjaweed reacted by unleashing attacks on Darfur villagers.

"People will continue to be in need of external food assistance for many months to come." says Cornelius. He visited the region in July. "The people we met living in displaced camps have lost their crops and have a very limited ability to purchase food on the local market where food prices have doubled and tripled"

Mennonite Central Committee Canada, one of the 13 church-based agencies which own the Foodgrains Bank, will be the primary partner involved in this shipment. Other partners are also involved in programming in Sudan. Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, for example, is working on water and sanitation programming in 3 villages in the area.

"We appreciate the generous support of so many here in Canada to the plight of the people in Darfur," says Willie Reimer of MCC, who was also part of the delegation to Sudan in July. "There are still a lot of people without a regular supply of food in the region. And because they haven't been able to return to their homes to plant this past season, they will not have a harvest."