Sam Brownback: “I will not take my colleagues' time for long, but I draw attention to a situation that has further developed-- or…”

“I will not take my colleagues' time for long, but I draw attention to a situation that has further developed-- or devolved and deteriorated--and that is the situation in Darfur. It is a situation this Senate has spoken to often. We have spoken on resolutions, on amendments; we have added funds. What we have feared is now upon us. We are now seeing in the IDP camps, the individuals that are displaced internally, diseases such as asthma, malaria, cholera and dysentery. We have had 12 humanitarian workers killed in the last 2 months. That is driving a number of the humanitarian groups out of the region. The NGO, the nongovernment organizations, currently now serve only 60 percent of the people they were serving. The Government of Sudan has reportedly resumed aerial bombings taking place in the northern and southern parts of Darfur. The situation is growing worse. We don't know how many people have died already, but it is set to escalate rapidly. NGOs are fleeing because people are getting killed. The people are concentrated in the camps. They are now not getting food and clean water. Now we have cholera, more misery, malaria and the numbers of people getting killed escalating dramatically. It is going to escalate further and more dramatically if we do not act. We have the government in Khartoum saying they want the African Union troops out. We do not have a big enough force there now. They are scheduled to leave the end of September.…”