The Tragedy of Darfur

Darfur, the word conjures images of burning villages, emaciated children and brutal violence. The number of people that have been killed and displaced in the region is impossibly high.

What is happening in Darfur is genocide.

The government sponsored Arab Janjaweed is methodically exterminating the black Africans in the region. The Janjaweed militias enter villages on the backs of camels carrying with them Kalashnikovs, AK-47s and machetes. They brutalize the Darfurians and burn their homes to the ground.

Many die and the rest are forced to flee. Most go to refugee camps across the Chad border. Life in the refugee camps is unimaginably hard. It is difficult for many aid agencies to gain access to the camps, which sometimes leaves hundreds of thousands of people without the much needed food aid.

The Sudanese government denies its role in the violence and has routinely rejected the deployment of United Nations troops into the region. Journalists are denied entry, further isolating the country.

What is happening in Darfur is unacceptable. UN peacekeepers need to be deployed to the region, economic sanctions need to be imposed and the world needs to pay attention to what is happening to these vulnerable, neglected people.