How many have died in Darfur?

Nobody knows how many people have died during the two-year conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region. But the widely quoted United Nations figure of 70,000 is clearly wrong, because it was based on a study that does not include those killed in the violence and covers just six months of the conflict. The UN says that more than two million of the estimated six million population have fled their homes, but the organisation is reluctant to suggest how many might have died in total. One significant problem is that the Sudanese government and their allies, an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed, are blamed for most of the deaths, so the Khartoum authorities show little interest in encouraging any accurate assessment. Indeed they consistently underplay the scale of the crisis. Myriad international differences on Darfur have also contributed. The UN Security Council remains unable to agree on how to sanction the government or the perpetrators of abuses from all sides. The small African Union force meant to monitor a ceasefire is ineffective and under strength. This has led to continuing clashes, meaning many parts of the province remain insecure and inaccessible to those who might investigate. A recent UN mission visited to establish whether US claims of genocide in Darfur were accurate. It failed to give any kind of toll, despite cataloguing hundreds of violent incidents and many eyewitness accounts of village massacres. The commission concluded that grave human rights abuses were taking place but there was no genocide. It is calling for war crimes trials. [more]