“We have to work on Darfur today to prevent what will happen tomorrow,” said Omer Ismail, founder of the Darfur Peace and Development Organization to a crowded room of students. These words marked the end of his lecture, “Witness to Genocide: The Horror Continues.”

Ismail’s organization coordinates humanitarian aid and relief efforts in the Darfur region. He is among the leading advocates for intervention and humanitarian relief in Sudan. Ismail is unique among his colleagues in that he was actually born, raised and educated in Western Sudan. In 1988, he began to work for the United Nations in the region until the 1989 National Islamic Front take-over forced him to flee to the United States.

He has just returned from a visit to the Darfur region, during which he visited refugees in eastern Chad.

 “You don’t want to imagine the environment that these people live in,” Ismail said of the refugees.

There are currently about two million people stationed in refugee camps because of the Darfur conflict. Although the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed in May 2006, requiring the Sudanese government to disarm the Janjaweed rebel militia, Ismail expressed doubts over the agreement’s potential to assist refugees.

“Why do the people of Darfur reject [the Darfur Peace Agreement]? Because it gave them nothing,” said Ismail. “Nothing for these people who were uprooted, lost everything, were raped and pillaged. [The agreement] gave them $30 million for two million people — it is a joke.”

Despite the official disbanding of the Janjaweed, there is still widespread violence in Sudan perpetuated by rebel groups and offensives against them.

The National Redemption Front is an example of such a group, comprised of four disparate groups who did not sign the Darfur Peace Agreement. Ismail has worked with members of this rebel organization and spoke of the need to incorporate members of both the rebel groups and the government-hired militias into efforts to effect a solution.

“Children 12 and 15 years old go to fight [with the NRF]. Many of their relatives are dead, injured,” Ismail said. “Life is not worth living for these people, except to fight for [their relatives].”

“Is it child-soldiering, or are they teaching them a trade?” he asked.

All of his personal experience and history in the region has helped Ismail bring a complex, perceptive perspective to the origins and future of the conflict.

 “Many people fail to understand the political issues behind the situation in Sudan,” he said. “A few understand the underlying issues, whereas many focus on the superficial issues.”

Ismail spent much of his lecture addressing the historical events that led to the current crisis:

“We failed in making Sudan a nation-state, at treating people equally.”

Sudan is a nation with roughly 200 languages and as many as 500 tribes, making the situation even more complex, he said.

“Imagine going the distance from Oberlin to Cleveland,” elaborated Ismail. “In Sudan, you would need ten translators for the journey.”

Ismail encouraged students to direct their studies and energies toward ending the atrocities in Darfur.

“You who are studying: think of the challenges we are faced with there and of those who want to hear creative solutions…everyone should consider themselves a victim and walk a mile in the victim’s shoes,” he urged.

Ismail’s lecture and discussion at Johnson House was sponsored by STAND, the Office of the President, Muslim Student Association, Hillel and Tzedek. He is currently a fellow at Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, where he is studying international relations.