Crisis Response: Humanitarian Band-Aids in Sudan and Somalia

by John Prendergast

The UN has classified 26 conflicts around the world as complex emergencies. These affect around 59 million people, a large number of them in Africa. There are currently some 70,000 peace keepers in 70 countries serving 17 missions, all requiring different humanitarian responses. The war-induced famine in Sudan and Somalia has received a huge international response, but has raised many controversial questions about the most effective way to deal with such crises.

In this challenging book, John Prendergast analyses the effectiveness of all the major humanitarian interventions in recent years, and provides a range of initiatives on how the international community can respond more appropriately. He argues that the failure of military intervention and state building efforts in Somalia, and the attempt at a negotiated access response to aiding the victims in the Sudan provide insights into other crises. Sudan and Somalia are crucial as pointers for the future because they are part of the Horn of Africa legacy of cyclical famines and massive responses which come too late and fail to address the cause of the crises.

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 1997

About the author

John Prendergast is a human rights activist and best-selling author who has worked for peace in Africa for over 25 years. He is the co-founder of the Enough Project, an initiative to end genocide and crimes against humanity affiliated with the Center for American Progress. John has worked for the Clinton White House, the State Department, two members of Congress, the National Intelligence Council, UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He has been a Big Brother for over 25 years, as well as a youth counselor and a basketball coach.

John is the author or co-author of ten books. His forthcoming book, Unlikely Brothers, due in May 2011, is a dual memoir co-authored with his first little brother in the Big Brother program. His previous two books were co-authored with Don Cheadle: Not On Our Watch, a New York Times bestseller and NAACP non-fiction book of the year, and The Enough Moment: Fighting to End Africa's Worst Human Rights Crimes.

(Taken from Prendergast's Enough Project bio)