The first genocide this century is raging in the Western Darfur region of Sudan and, despite having been acknowledged for a decade, it continues unabated. Never before has a genocide been identified as such while in progress, then left to take its brutal course.
In 2003, the Arab-Muslim government of Sudan launched a counter-insurgency offensive against two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, which were fighting for social and economic equality. Darfur’s black-African Fur and Zaghawa tribes, suspected of being rebel sympathizers, were targeted by the government-sponsored Janjaweed militia, which went on the rampage, burning homes and slaughtering civilians.
