In Darfur, Terror From the Air

Sudan Intensifies Use of Helicopter Gunships and Bombs, Driving More Villagers From Their Homes

By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service

EL FASHER, Sudan, Sept. 8 -- Yagoub Mustafa, 45, could not easily mimic the "whoop whoop whoop, boom! boom! boom!" of two helicopter gunships that fired rockets into the huts in his Darfur village. He tried to make the noises, but they were not loud enough, or terrifying enough.

But the horror he experienced that July afternoon, while he crouched low under a tree with his sobbing sons, daughters and nephews pressed against him, was more easily expressed: Mustafa thought they all were going to die, he said. And as he offered soothing words to the children, he begged for rescue in a silent prayer.

Please God help us. We need your mercy. Read more >>>