Campaigners around the world took up the cause of Darfur Sunday at meetings and rallies in over 50 cities with the call for an end to the civil war in the troubled region in western Sudan.
Amnesty International and Human Rights watch were just two of the roughly 30 human rights organisations that put together the massive Global Day for Darfur initiative.The event was organised to coincide with the start of the United Nations General Assembly debate this week and to mark the first anniversary of the signing of the 2005 UN World Summit Outcome Document which pledged "to take collective action... if national authorities manifestly fail to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity," according to the event's organisers.
From London to New York, Melbourne to Seoul, from Berlin to Stockholm, cities around the world united to end the conflict between the rebels and the government-backed Arab militia who have been locked in conflict since February 2003, leaving more than 300,000 dead and another 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN.
Tony Blair added to the voices calling for action as he appealed to his counterparts in the EU in a letter to put heavy pressure on the Sudanese government to end the civil war, stating that the EU should play a "central role in mobilising world opinion on this issue".
He also condemned the Sudanese government for rejecting a UN peacekeeping force for the troubled region and accused it of breaking ceasefire arrangements.
In London, some of the most senior religious figures from Britain's Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities gathered outside Downing Street today to offer prayers for Darfur.
Those gathered included head of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Methodist Coordinating Secretary for Public Life and Social Justice, Anthea Cox, Rabbi Danny Rich of Liberal Judaism, and Khadijah El Shayyal of the Islamic Society of Britain.
