Ban kicks off first visit to Sudan

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September 4, 2007

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Sudan yesterday to check on the progress made in Darfur.

"I want to see for myself the plight of those we seek to help, and the conditions under which our peacekeepers in Darfur will operate," Ban said.

Mr. Ban's visit comes just weeks after the Security Council authorized a hybrid force, which will have some 26,000 peacekeepers at full deployment, to quell the violence in Darfur, where at least 200,000 people have died and more than two million others forced to flee their homes since 2003 because of fighting between rebel groups, Sudanese Government forces and allied Janjaweed militias.

Posted by Jessica Valenti at 8:39 AM

November 12, 2008

Taking the Fight Against Malaria to the Front Lines

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Six weeks before his election on November 4, President-elect Barack Obama made a promise to the one million people around the world who die from Malaria each year. "When I am President," he said, "We will set the goal of ending all deaths from Malaria by 2015. The United States will lead."

This may sound like a typical grandiose promise made by a candidate seeking election. But to those in the public health community it offered validation that ending Malaria deaths is not some pie in the sky dream--but a goal that can be achieved in the here and now. Following through on this commitment, however, means that the fight against Malaria must be taken to where the disease is most destructive and most difficult to contain: refugee camps in Africa.

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