Since Feb. 2003 the Darfur region of Sudan has been ravaged by ethnic and tribal conflict. Initially, it took the form of a rebellion of primarily non-Arabs from local tribes in an attempt to improve the impoverished conditions of the region and address perceived inequality in favor of Arabs. In response, the primarily Arab government sent militia known as janjaweed to the region in order to control and combat the rebel attacks. Government aerial bombardments supported the activities of the militiamen. Over the past few years, the janjaweed militia has evicted millions of people from their homes in Darfur and raped, brutalized, murdered and pillaged the villages of the non-Arab inhabitants of the region. According to The New York Times, it is estimated that as many as 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict, and 2.5 million have been displaced, mostly to neighboring Chad. The Sudanese government, by contrast, claims that there have only been 9,000 fatalities, but this is considered by most sources to be a gross and intentionally misleading underestimation. The high level of violence utilized by the Arab government against the non-Arab inhabitants of the region led the U.S. government to recognize the conflict in Darfur as genocide on June 22, 2004. The U.S. reasserted its initial declaration of genocide in October 2006.

The Sudanese government continues to use various methods in its attempt to cover up the magnitude of the conflict and the tactics of the militias. The Khartoum regime stands accused of tampering with mass graves to destroy forensic evidence and arresting journalists to prevent the spread of information, among other acts of deception. The Sudanese have also rejected any help from the United Nations, and have claimed that any U.N. forces would be viewed as invaders. Though the government of Sudan maintains that it has no ties to the janjaweed, it continues to supply the militia with money and assistance, especially in the form of aerial support. Reportedly, Sudanese troops even participate in joint attacks with the militia against settlements in Darfur. The Sudanese government’s attempts to hide the specifics of the conflict, combined with its continued exacerbation of the humanitarian crisis, should have intensified the efforts of powerful nations and organizations to provide relief in the area and to pressure the government and rebels to stop armed conflict. However, while the genocide has continued and even escalated, the conflict is spoken of less frequently, and governments have moved on to more ‘pressing’ problems.

With the failure of the May 5, 2006 peace treaty between the government and the Sudanese Liberation Movement, fighting has resumed in the region. The conflict has grown in complexity with the splintering of several large rebel groups, creating intra-factional conflict. Additionally, janjaweed continue to devastate the Darfur region with help from the government; the attacks had lessened after the treaty but now resemble the large-scale assaults of the first two years of the genocide. The government and militia have returned to what Lydia Polgreen of The New York Times terms the “scorched-earth” strategy, involving tactics of destruction and dislocation. Within the past months, the janjaweed have increasingly ravaged and burned down villages. The government has followed up these crimes with bombings of the devastated areas. According to Polgreen, this renewed offensive is aimed at regaining and ethnically cleansing the territory lost to the Justice and Equality Movement, another active rebel group. Though the government claims that the actions are purely to control the rebel fighters, interviews prove that in many cases the rebels had already left the area long before the government began the attacks.

The increased violence and fighting in Darfur over the past few months has hindered the progress of the peacekeeping mission undertaken by the U.N. and the African Union. According to a recent U.N. report, only 9,000 peacekeepers are in the area, with about 26,000 planned to be deployed. These troops, however, are caught in the bureaucratic traps set by the Sudanese government to inhibit the success of the mission. But, is this the only action available to the U.N. and the international community to stop the humanitarian crisis? It is obvious that current policies toward Darfur are failing miserably. Arms embargoes are almost worthless since world-wide implementation of the embargo is basically impossible and in many states the political will to adhere to the standards of the embargo is lacking. Without harsher consequences, Sudan will continue to hinder the peacekeepers’ attempt to curtail its genocidal activities.

In light of the accusations of genocide and human rights atrocities against its government, the U.N. should demand that Sudan, as a member state, practice transparency in its approach to the conflict. However, to create the political will necessary for the U.N. to pressure Sudan to change its policies, news of the crisis must return to the front pages. Sadly, the Iraq War and the presidential elections have caused the genocide to almost disappear from public and government agendas. The genocide in Sudan must become an important element in state agendas and the public mind, as it is unacceptable that the U.N., U.S. and other powerful nations have let these crimes continue for five years.