Donald M. Payne: “I have an amendment on what I think is probably one of the most horrendous situations that has occurred for the past 40…”

“I have an amendment on what I think is probably one of the most horrendous situations that has occurred for the past 40 years in a country that was the first African country to receive its independence back in 1956 from Britain. It is the country of Sudan. The country of Sudan has seen an estimated 2 million people die from famine and war-related issues. In 1998 alone, 100,000 people died because the National Islamic Front government denied United Nations humanitarian food to be delivered to the needy people in the south of Sudan. More people have died in Sudan than in Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, and Congo combined. We have seen food being deprived from people. We have seen the fact that the Antonovs, which are old Soviet planes, fly over communities. I was there several times where we actually would watch the chickens because the chickens would hear the planes from long distances and the children would then run when the chickens started to move around and then the older people would know that the planes are coming, the bombs are coming, you try to get out of it. It is one of the most horrendous situations. Two million people. All we are asking is that there be nonlethal equipment, that the people be allowed to have food, that they could protect themselves from the aerial bombings, that they could have some semblance of order.”