Goal has launched an appeal on behalf of the people of Darfur in western Sudan.
"Darfur is a dry, dusty area of scrub in Western Sudan similar in size to France" said GOAL Chief Executive John O'Shea, "the population is desperately poor and for centuries has scraped by on subsistence farming".
Human rights abuses being inflicted on the people of Darfur have been described by UN general Secretary General Kofi Annan as "ethnic cleansing". Mr James Morris of the World Food Programme has called it "one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world".
According to the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than two million people have been affected by the conflict - a doubling of the numbers in the space of a month. At least 100,000 of these have sought refuge in neighbouring Chad and the same number again are now facing starvation.
GOAL has been running a humanitarian programme in Darfur for the last six months and is urging the Irish government to raise the issue at European Union, and UN level.
"I am asking members of the public to please give what they can now to GOAL by sending cheques to GOAL , PO Box 19, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, phoning 01-2809779 to make a credit card donation or by donating on line at
www. goal .ie," Mr O'Shea said.