The New Rwanda: Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan
Arab militias raped over 100 women, abducted 150 women and 200 children, and killed over 80 people yesterday in Darfur in western Sudan, reported BBC (Mass rape atrocity in west Sudan). The conflict between the Arabic North, dominating the government, and the animist and Christian black south has existed since the country's independence in 1956 but the conflict has escalated in the last 20 years, reaching its culmination in the past year.
The Arab militias (janjaweed) are armed by the Sudanese government to strike back against the non-Arab population, who were accused of supporting the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). Janjaweed soldiers' salary comes from what they can grab and the promise of land cleared of those now living on it. The government has thus handed the janjaweed a license to terrorise the population of Darfur and given them the means to do so, reported the Observer (Don't breathe a sigh of relief for Sudan just yet).
The UN is comparing the conflict with the Rwandan atrocities. More than 100,000 people have fled across the border into Chad, but have continued to face cross-border raids, continues the BBC. (Also read the Guardian, Sudanese refugees flee killer militias)
This human crisis has remained unnoticed by the world. Only a handful of NGOs are allowed in, with insufficient resources. Village after village is basically being wiped out of the face of the earth, says BBC's Andrew Harding, in the mean time, the world is focused on other agendas: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo.