Darfur, Sudan
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked African leaders this week to work together to help end the bloody conflict in Sudan, where Arab militias backed by the Arab-dominated government have been rampaging through black villages for nearly a year. Some 30,000 people have been killed and more than a million forced to flee to overcrowded, disease-ridden refugee camps. Speaking in Ethiopia to a summit of leaders from the African Union, a loose political grouping of African countries established two years ago, Annan said the organization was facing its first real test. So far, the marks have been poor: The union has pledged to send just 300 soldiers to monitor a cease-fire.
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