The horrors of Darfur

[gottaB]

Last week's visit to Darfur by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan grabbed the headlines and focussed world attention on the humanitarian catastrophe currently unfolding in the war-torn western Sudanese province of Darfur, marked by gross violations of international humanitarian law and the indiscriminate targeting of hapless civilians including the rape of women and children and the senseless killing of innocent villagers.

"The Sudanese government has been carrying out a scorched earth policy in Darfur," the Sudanese opposition Umma Party leader and former Sudanese prime minister Sadiq Al-Mahdi told Al- Ahram Weekly.

Al-Mahdi explained that the Sudanese government and allied Arab militias known as the Janjaweed or "devils on horseback" ransacked villages and embarked on systematic revenge killings against armed resistance fighters in Darfur who demanded that they have a say in the decision-making process. "The government launched a massive clampdown. Their actions amount to war crimes," Al-Mahdi said.

The horrors of Darfur....

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Al-Mahdi offers valuable insights into the conflict, and Nkrumah also uses the ICG report to make sense of it. Worth a read.