A former US marine was in Nashville yesterday talking about his experiences as an African Union observer in the Darfur region of Sudan.
29-year-old Brian Steidle took photographs during his year and a half documenting the humanitarian crisis for the A-U, which is a coalition of African states.
Located in Northern Africa, Sudan has been experiencing civil war for over 20 years and the United States government acknowledged only recently that genocide has occurred in the region. Steidle says the largely Arab government of Sudan has been conducting a campaign of killing, looting and destruction against the African Christians in the western part of the country known as Darfur.
Steidle has been touring the US for over a year to raise awareness about the crisis. He says it’s still hard to look at the photos of bullet-ridden bodies and over-crowded refugee camps.
“What’s hardest is to bang my head against the wall over and over and over again every time I come out and I wonder why am I still talking about this. Like why am I still going around talking about this and getting people to ask me what’s Darfur and what’s happening in Darfur? Why do people not know? That is the hardest thing trying to convince people that we should do something, that we should do everything in our power to stop it.”
Steidle says there are several bills up before Congress relating to Sudan, including the Darfur Peace Accountability Act, and Steidle is on a campaign to get 1-million people to send letters to their representatives by April 30th. He estimates just over 100-thousand have been sent.
Steidle addressed a group at Tennessee State University, met with community leaders over lunch, did an event with one half of the country music duo ‘Big and Rich’ in the afternoon, and spoke to another group last night at the Scarritt Bennett center.
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