Since
1983, a combination of civil war and famine has taken the lives of nearly 2 million
people in Sudan. It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken
into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War.
A
letter dated 14 August 2006, from the executive director of Human Rights Watch
found that the Sudanese government is both incapable of protecting its own
citizens in Darfur and unwilling to do so, and that its militias are guilty of
crimes against humanity. The letter added that these human-rights abuses have
existed since 2004. Some reports attribute part of the violations to the rebels
as well as the government and the Janjaweed. The U.S. State Department's
human-rights report issued in March 2007 claims that parties to the conflagration committed serious
abuses, including widespread killing of civilians, rape as a tool of war,
systematic torture, robbery and recruitment of child soldiers.
Over
2.8 million civilians have been displaced and the death toll is estimated at
300,000 killed. Both government forces and militias allied with the government
are known to attack not only civilians in Darfur, but also humanitarian
workers. Sympathizers of rebel groups are arbitrarily detained, as are foreign
journalists, human-rights defenders, student activists and displaced people in
and around Khartoum, some of whom face torture. The rebel groups have also been
accused in a report issued by the U.S. government of attacking humanitarian
workers and of killing innocent civilians.
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