Since early 2003, conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan has left 200,000 to 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million Darfurians displaced. With the backing of the Government of Sudan, Arab militias called the Janjaweed are carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign against non-Arab tribes in Darfur.

Darfur expert, Eric Reeves, provides further background in his Crash Course on Darfur.

Little has been done to end the atrocities being committed in Darfur. Countless homes, schools, markets, and businesses have been burnt to the ground; crops have been decimated and livestock stolen. Women and children bear the brunt of the conflict.  Rape is being used as a systematic weapon of war as a means to stigmatize, humiliate, and terrify women, girls, and families. Tens of thousands of children have been kidnapped and made child soldiers.

The deteriorating security situation, including attacks on humanitarian aid workers, has caused international NGOs to pull out of the region and led to extreme food shortages. Areas surrounding villages and camps are so heavily patrolled by militias that people leaving for water, wood, or food face the constant threat of death, abduction or rape. With their movement so severely limited, Darfurians have little ability to find resources and rebuild their lives.

(Jody Williams- second from left- with other members of the UN Human Rights Council Mission on the Darfur region of Sudan, during a Mission briefing.)

The international community has given Darfur intermittent support but thus far failed to come together in coordinated action to stop the mass atrocities. In February 2007, the UN Human Rights Council dispatched a High-Level Mission on the situation in Darfur and selected Nobel Laureate Jody Williams to lead the delegation. After the Mission, Williams presented a scathing report to the Council, condemning the Sudanese government for war crimes and calling for international governments to take immediate action to protect the people of Darfur.

In July 2007, the UN Security Council passed a resolution authorizing a joint Africa Union- UN peacekeeping mission of up to 26,000 troops to bolster the existing peacekeeping mission. The troops were scheduled to be deployed in December 2007, but have been delayed by consistent stall tactics by Sudan's government.

In late October 2007, the United Nations and African Union (AU) facilitated a start to peace talks, held in Libya, but key players were absent and the talks turned into consultations about negotiations. UN and AU efforts and outreach to reach agreement on terms and locations for peace talks continue. The crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan continues to deepen.

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Download the pdf of the Report to the UN on the Mission to Darfur here.

Read the latest News on Darfur.

Take Action for the people of Darfur.

Read more about the connection between Darfur and the 2008 Beijing Olympics at our Olympics Issue page.

For additional information on the crisis in Darfur:

Amnesty International: Stop the Violence in Darfur

Darfur Consortium: An African and International Civil Society Action for Darfur

Human Rights Watch: Crisis in Darfur

Peace Women: NGO Contacts in Sudan

Physicians for Human Rights: Rape as a Weapon of War in Darfur

Sudan Divestment Task Force: A Project of the Genocide Intervention Network

UNIFEM: Women, Peace & Security - Sudan Profile

Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice: Activities in Darfur

Copyright Helene Caux.

Internally displaced women in Gouroukoun camp, near Goz Beida. They fled repeated attacks from janjaweed at the border and were displaced several times before reaching Goz Beida. Janjaweed are believed to have perpetrated several massacres in Chadian villages at the Chad/Sudan border. Gouroukoun site, Eastern Chad, 10 May 2006.