5 years ago today, the 9th of January of 2005, Africa’s longest civil war came to an end: the armed and political giants of North and South Sudan signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Naivasha, Kenya.

5 years later, the 9th of January of 2010, none of the words in the title “Comprehensive Peace Agreement” have shown themselves on the ground:

Comprehensive:

Although it is the anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, comprehensive is not a word that should be used to describe the extent of peace in Sudan.

In this week’s issue: the International Crisis Group releases a report warning of wider conflict in Sudan, ethnic ceasefire militias in Burma increase opium production to purchase weapons, and the Lord’s Resistance Army threatens a repeat of last year’s Christmas massacre in DR Congo

Areas of Concern

Earlier today, President Barack Obama accepted his Nobel Peace Prize at Oslo City Hall. Recognizing the combined importance of nonviolence and military action to accomplishing and maintaining peace, President Obama emphasized the necessity of acting in accordance with international law.

Last week, we asked you to pledge to join the movement to prevent genocide, and to ask your friends and family to do the same.

Khartoum police arrested around 70 opposition members yesterday morning, including three leaders of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the ruling party of South Sudan. The arrests were in response to protests calling for electoral and legal reform by the National Assembly. The Sudanese government issued a last minute ban on the opposition rally on Sunday.

Guest post by Gabi Arons and Nicole DeChello, Amnity High School

Nicole and Gabi here. We’re Amity High School’s Canvass leaders in Woodbridge, CT.

After the Pledge2Protect Conference, we were so inspired to head the canvass at our school, so we got right to work. Three very long weeks later, December 1st finally came. We had planned for Amity STAND club members to go into every classroom (therefore talking to EVERY student at Amity) and tell students about the National Canvass and ask them to sign pledges.

Guest post by Jenn Polish, Queens College STAND

Good music, good company, a dance floor, and – oh yeah – awareness raising, fundraising, and pledging against genocide – made for an AMAZING night at Queens College in Flushing, New York. What we’ve lovingly dubbed our Peace Jam was held the night of Thursday December 3rd in the fourth floor ballroom of our Student Union Building from 6 to 10 PM.

In case you missed today’s hearing in the House Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health – which included US Special Envoy General Scott Gration’s first testimony before Congress since the release of the administration’s Sudan policy – we’ve put together some highlights and a wrap-up of blogs, commentary, and news coverage.

Today, we kicked off the Pledge2Protect canvass. In cooperation with the Genocide Intervention Network and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, we are asking people across the country to take the pledge to prevent genocide.

To do this, chapters are holding awesome events throughout this week to educate about the ongoing conflicts and motivate people to take action. Not only this, but they are using these events as a chance to collect pledges from the attendees.