The United Nations and human rights groups have accused Sudan’s government of backing the “ethnic cleansing” of Africans by Arab tribes people and keeping aid groups and journalists out of Darfur to hide human rights abuses.
The government denies the allegations, despite accusations by refugees and rebels that Sudanese military forces have bombed and attacked civilians.
Egeland has described the violence against Africans in Darfur as “ethnic cleansing, but not genocide.” He also has called the situation “one of the most forgotten and neglected humanitarian crises.”
In Taringa, a remote village near Sudan’s border with Chad, chief Suleiman said he and roughly 200 other inhabitants have begun rebuilding their devastated home, one of six villages he said were destroyed by unidentified rebels.
The conflict began in February 2003, when two rebel groups — the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement — took up arms, saying they were fighting for a share of power and wealth in Africa’s largest country.
