The Bloody Sideshow in Sudan

By: Rebecca Tinsley.

As another wave of ethnic cleansing, rape and killing sweeps Darfur, those following the dramatic events in the Middle East and North Africa should reflect on the fate of six million civilians trapped in Sudan's bloody sideshow.

This might sound familiar: eight years ago, on April 25th 2003, a group of rebels rose up against the corrupt and brutal Arab regime that had oppressed and impoverished them for decades.

The regime in question was Sudan's National Islamic Front (NIF). The rebels attacked a military airfield at El Fasher in Darfur, humiliating the NIF which reacted by systematically slaughtering defenseless civilians, village by village.

The United Nations estimates 300,000 people died as a direct consequence of this act of defiance. According to Human Rights Watch, the NIF government, aided by their proxies, the Janjaweed militia, destroyed ninety per cent of non-Arab villages in Darfur.

However, there was no concerted international response; no jets were dispatched to bomb government tanks and protect civilians. Instead, survivors fled from their ruined homes, salvaging what they could carry, trying to reach refugee camps, where they remain to this day. The UN believes there are still two and a half million displaced Darfuris. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>