So far this
year, an estimated 300,000 people have fled their homes in Sudan’s Darfur
region according to the United Nations.
After a peace deal was signed in 2011, violence had died down, but not
out.
Altogether,
about 1.4 million people are now homeless, and 300,000 are believed to have
died since the conflict began in 2003. While on a
visit to a refugee camp, the
UN’s top humanitarian official, Valerie Amos, said the situation was ‘extremely
worrying’.
She said displaced
people faced chronic food shortages, and had to walk in fierce heat to get
water. They also lacked access to health
care and education, while rebels were obstructing the distribution of aid.
The conflict
began with rebels complaining that the Sudanese government favoured Arabs and oppressed
black Africans. Since it started, the
mainly Arab Janjaweed militia has been accused of carrying out ethnic cleansing
and genocide, and President al-Bashir has been indicted by the International
Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.
(See also my
blogs of March 4, 5 March, 6 Aug, 21 Sept, 2009 and 27 May 2010.)
* The fifth in
my series of videos on Britain’s 20 Worst
Military Disasters features the Battle of Hastings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtIhODt-Wrc&feature=youtu.be
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