The Presbyterian Church of Sudan, with support from a variety of Western advocacy groups, has decided to appeal the September 2006 American court decision which dismissed its lawsuit against Canadian company Talisman Energy.
The New York judge dismissed the charges because, she alleged, the Sudanese church failed to prove that Talisman was responsible for the acts of violence against the people of southern Sudan (for details, click here). The church, along with various international observers, argues that Talisman worked on consort with the Islamic Sudanese government in bombings and killings that displaced thousands of people in the area where oil exploration was taking place. Those living in southern Sudan are mainly Christian and animist.