Refugee from Darfur to Speak at NSU

NATCHITOCHES -­ Ibrahim Musa Adam, a refugee from Sudan’s western region of Darfur, will speak at Northwestern State University Tuesday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.  The speech is part of the Save Darfur Coalition’s “Voices from Darfur” national speaking tour and is sponsored by the Louisiana Scholars’ College and Student International Outreach at the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts.

Adam grew up in the village of Jadara in Northern Darfur where he worked as a farmer and volunteered as a teacher.

In July of 2003, his hometown was destroyed by the Sudanese army and the Janjaweed. Eighty people were killed in the massacre ­20 of which were members of Ibrahim’s family. More than 100 of his relatives now live in six different refugee and internally displaced persons camps in Darfur and Chad.  His sister has not seen her children or husband in three years because they were separated during the attacks.

Adam lives and works in Rockford, Ill. He would like to someday have a job that allows him move back to Jadara and help rebuild Darfur.

Launched in summer 2007, Voices from Darfur visited 44 cities across the United States last year, reaching more than 10,000 people.

Since February 2003, as many as 400,000 people are estimated to have died in Darfur and 2.5 million have been displaced as a result of what President Bush and Congress have called genocide. Suffering in Darfur continues to intensify as a result of the genocide. In June 2007, a U.N. spokesperson stated that nearly 140,000 civilians have been displaced since the beginning of the year.  Four million people are now affected by the crisis, which has spread from Sudan into neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic.

For more information, go to http://www.voicesfromdarfur.org .