Darfur's Displaced Battle Hunger, Disease, Raids

In controversial Italy visit, Bashir pledges quiet during October peace talks

(NEWSER) - Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, in a rare and controversial visit to Italy, promised today to observe a ceasefire in Darfur during October peace talks. Pope Benedict used a meeting with Bashir to stress the importance of human rights, while Italy’s PM voiced “strong concerns” over the four-year genocidal crisis. Bashir urged Europe to encourage Sudanese rebels to attend the talks. More»

Recent upset in Chad has Sudanese military, janjaweed militias on warpath

(NEWSER) - Darfur may be on a road back to the pitched fighting between rebels, militias and the Sudanese army that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions 5 years ago, prompting the US to call it genocide, the New York Times reports. The Sudanese government recently stepped up operations in the area, creating “a population that is just being attacked from both sides.” More»

(NEWSER) - A top UN official has declared that the "real war" in Darfur is over, but that might come as a surprise to the 3 million or so refugees still living in fear of militia attacks, writes Andrew Meldrum for Global Post. He talks to relief officials who find the pronouncement "incredibly premature," in the words of one. It "directly contradicts what we see on the ground." More»

Despite the violence, Sudan crisis may not fit legal definition

(NEWSER) - Hundreds of thousands of people have died or been displaced in the years-long conflict in Darfur, which presidents Bush and Obama have both called a genocide. But while nobody denies the seriousness of the violence, organizations from Doctors Without Borders to the International Criminal Court say that the Sudanese government's actions don't constitute a true genocide. For them, using that word to describe Darfur is setting a hazardous precedent, writes Edmund Sanders in the Los Angeles Times. More»

(NEWSER) - George Clooney figures prominently in New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof's latest report from Africa, which Kristof describes as "yet another hand-wringing column about Darfur." He offers to swap dirt on the Hollywood heartthrob for readers' interest—then offers a chilling tale of a "petty and mean-spirited" move by the UN, which yanked the Americans' security escort. More»