The political situation in much of Africa does not seem to be improving. With reports of new abductions by the Lord's Resistance Army in the Congo, once promising peace talks now seem to be moving nowhere.

Meanwhile, famine continues to plague southern Sudan and the war in Darfur is shifting towards the displacement camps where people have moved for relief from the fighting.

The Lord's Resitance Army abducts 90 children; President Bush meets with Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni

Amidst a bevy of issues recently concerning Wall Street and the, President Bush still found time to meet with Yoweri Museveni, the President of Uganda, to discuss the LRA's (Lord's Resistance Army) recent surge of child abductions and attacks all across the region.

Last week alone, the LRA abducted approximately 90 children from schools in the northern Congo.

As is the tradition of the LRA and their leader, Joseph Kony, who has been waging a 21-year war on the Ugandan government, the children are being held as soldiers and sex slaves.

UNICEF's (The United Nations Children's Fund) eastern Congo field operations chief, Julien Harneis, believes that the children's lives are at risk.

"These children were taken from their schools. UNICEF is very concerned that they will now be forced to fight or support fighting, putting their lives at risk." Julien Harneis, UNICEF eastern Congo field operations chief

"These children were taken from their schools. UNICEF is very concerned that they will now be forced to fight or support fighting, putting their lives at risk," Harneis stated.

All of this happened in the midst of peace negotiations between LRA representatives and mediators in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan.

Anyone wishing to get involved can go here to send President Bush an email asking him take action after his meeting with Museveni.

You can also sign up for email alerts and more at Resolve Uganda.

To get involved locally, there s The Jazz for Justice Project. Started here in Knoxville, Jazz for Justince has two primary commitments; "To help end the suffering in war-torn Northern Uganda" and "To explore music activism as a tool of social healing and transformation".

Flooding wroughts food crisis in southern Sudan; fighting continues in Darfur

The food situation has continued to worsen in Sudan. Combined with ongoing fighting in the Darfur region, a food crisis has emerged in the southeast, where floods have wiped out crops and isolated the region from foreign aid.

While the United Nations claim they have a month's worth of food for the region, worsening conditions due to the flooding and lack of air transport have prevented distribution of the rations.

According to a report by Reuters' Andrew Heavens out of Khartoum, Sudan's capital city, the flooding has led to the death of at least 69 children due to a combination of malnutrition, malaria and diarrhea.

Since an attack last month in the Kalma displacement camp, concern is being raised that the battlelines may be drifting to the displacement camps where victims have fled, attempting to find refuge. If this trend continues, there will likely be a rise in turmoil take over the region.

For more information about the situation in the Sudan and to get involved to help produce a solution, check Save Darfur for more information.

The Humanitarian Update is a column by TNJN's Dustyn Winder. The column will cover global humanitarian issues and provide more information on how to get involved in humanitarian issues in Knoxville and at UT. Disclaimer: the column solely represents the opinions of the author, not of the organization as a whole.