Darfur for Dummies

Courtesy of Wikipedia.

"Date 2003–present
Location Darfur
Result Humanitarian catastrophe (est. 200,000-400,000 or more dead and 2,500,000 refugees)

There are many casualty estimates, most concurring on a range within the hundreds of thousands. The United Nations (UN) estimates that the conflict has left as many as 450,000 dead from violence and disease.

Most NGOs (non-governmental organizations) use 200,000 to over 400,000, a figure from the Coalition for International Justice that has since been cited by the UN. Sudan's government claims that over 9,000 people have been killed, although this figure is seen as counterfactual (that means the Sudanese government is lying).

As many as 2.5 million are thought to have been displaced as of October 2006.

The Sudanese government has succeeded in suppressing information by jailing and murdering witnesses since 2004 and tampering with evidence such as disturbing mass graves and by doing so eliminating their forensic value. In addition, by obstructing and arresting journalists, the Sudanese government has been able to obscure much of what has gone on. The mass media once described the conflict as both 'ethnic cleansing' and 'genocide,' and now do so without hesitation."



*By Jess, who encourages you to spend the ten bucks on iTunes and get Instant Karma.