Darfur, Sudan
Sudan sent 10,000 troops swooping into Darfur this week to attack villages held by rebels. The offensive by the Arab-led government in Khartoum appears to be an attempt to wipe out rebel forces so that Sudan does not have to allow the deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force. Last week the U.N. Security Council authorized the creation of an international force of 20,000, but the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, rejected the U.N. deployment, calling it “part of a comprehensive conspiracy for confiscating the country’s sovereignty.” The current peacekeeping force of 7,000 African Union soldiers has been unable to protect civilians, and Sudan ordered it to leave when its mandate expires at the end of this month. Fighting between rebels and the government-backed Janjaweed militia has killed more than 200,000 people, and forced 2 million from their homes.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
5 fact-checked cartoons about Meta firing its fact checkersCartoons Artists take on playing chicken, information superhighway, and more
-
NCHIs: the controversy over non-crime hate incidentsThe Explainer Is the policing of non-crime hate incidents an Orwellian outrage or an essential tool of modern law enforcement?
-
Islamic State: the terror group's second actTalking Point Isis has carried out almost 700 attacks in Syria over the past year, according to one estimate
