Christian Science Monitor:
For the past three years, Arab militiamen have helped Sudan's government quell a rebellion in Darfur by slaughtering the region's mostly black African population and leaving behind a trail of rape, murder, and destruction. The result: more than 200,000 dead and 2 million displaced in what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian emergency.
At the very least, however, the violence in western Sudan was mostly confined to its borders.
No more.
The crisis in Darfur has exploded in recent weeks, and now threatens to drag fragile neighboring countries into a regional war.
Both Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) have become engulfed in fighting that involves a toxic mix of rebel groups, government forces, armed militias, and civilians.
"It's not a steady deterioration," Jan Egeland, the outgoing UN humanitarian chief, told reporters last week. "It's a free fall, and it includes Darfur, eastern Chad, and northern Central African Republic."
Tags: news | politics | Africa | Sudan | Darfur | Chad | Central African Republic | genocide | war
