| People flee from Darfur to avoid air attacks |
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| World Affairs Talk | |
| Thursday, 07 June 2007 | |
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The UN High Commissioner for Refugees started rushing aid to the 1,500 refugees who made the grueling 125 mile journey over the last 10 days. Dafak town in southern Darfur was attacked repeatedly by janjaweed militia from May 12 to May 18 and bombarded by air strikes later on. Sudanese air force bombs Darfur villagers and rebel positions, despite a UN resolution forbidding such attacks. Aid and humanitarian workers and Darfur survivors reported that air attacks are often in preparation for raids by pro-government janjaweed militiamen that follow shortly after the bombings. The Darfur crisis is a conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan. The two main military sides are the Sudanese Military and the Janjaweed militia, recruited mostly from tribes of the northern Rizeigat. The other side comprises a variety of rebel groups, notably the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, recruited primarily from the Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups. The Sudanese government, while publicly denying that it supports the Janjaweed, has provided money and assistance to the militia and has participated in joint attacks targeting the land-tilling tribes from which the Darfuri rebels draw support. Darfur region is located in the western part of the Sudan. It is bordered by Libya in the North, Chad in the West and the Central African Republic in the South West. Kordofan and Bahr El-Gazal regions border the eastern and the southern parts of Darfur respectively. The estimated population of Darfur is around 4 million, approximately 60% of whom are subsistence farmers. More than 200,000 people in Darfur have been killed and 2.5 million chased from their homes since fighting broke out in 2003 between ethnic African rebels and the janjaweed militia. A beleaguered, 7,000-member African Union force has been unable to stop the fighting and neither has a peace agreement signed a year ago year between the government and one rebel group. Why it is always, the innocent civilians suffer the most while the government and militants get away with their crime? Share & Bookmark             |
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