A new glimpse of hope this week arose from the blood-soaked ground of Sudan. On Tuesday, the world pledged a total of $2.5 billion in aid to send to the country ripped apart by a bloody civil war and genocide. Even conservative counts number the deaths at 180,000, and some counts estimate that 2 million people have been killed since 1985.

The aid is desperately needed to provide Sudan with a basic infrastructure and feed its people. The World Bank and United Nations estimate that $2.6 billion is needed from nations to reach the overall goal for a total of $7.9 billion in aid.

At an international conference in Oslo about Sudan, the United States pledged $1.7 billion to provide reconstruction materials and humanitarian aid, contingent upon congressional approval. It is crucial for Congress to provide the aid the administration promised at the donor conference. With humanitarian needs throughout this region having been largely ignored during the past several years, this is a great opportunity for the United States to use some of its wealth to help people who have led horrific lives for several decades.

On Dec. 16, three native aid workers were kidnapped but have now been returned to their families. They were delivering well-building supplies to the Western Darfur region that would help provide fresh drinking water for an estimated 80,000 people who have been forced out of their homes and sent to another place in the country. Around 2 million people have lost their homes during the conflict.

The Sudanese government and the rebels have at least been able to come to a peace agreement after more than 20 years of warfare. The peace seems tenuous at best. During the negotiations for the peace agreement, violence again broke out in Darfur. Several of the 50 world leaders who pledged aid money to help out Sudan said that the aid money was contingent upon a new peace in the region.

We have the capacity to communicate with our elected officials in Congress and encourage them to approve the full amount of aid pledged at the Oslo donor conference earlier this week. It is crucial to make our support for this ravaged country known so our representatives will act on it.

It is good and right for us to expect that the fighting will stop in Sudan. It is unfortunate that we must essentially negotiate to stop genocide by promising money for progress toward peace. The contingency that was placed upon the aid by Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick was wise and responsible. It should be our pleasure to serve another country, to provide funds and needed supplies essential to survival. We must make sure that our aid is being used in the way for which it is intended.

It will not do for the $2.5 billion in aid from countries around the world to be pocketed by several rebel leaders to perpetuate the warfare. Careful oversight to ensure that the humanitarian aid gets into the hands of the people who are suffering without their families and their homes must take place to help bring about peace in Sudan.

It is vital for our congressional representatives to deliver the humanitarian aid for Sudan and to ensure its responsible oversight. In a place where fathers are killed, mothers are raped and their children sold into slavery, it is crucial to help bring peace and hope to Sudan. A glimmer of hope is on the horizon for a future without mindless killing in a land that has been plagued by it for a generation.