In his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that genocide has occurred in the Darfur region of the Sudan. According to Reuters, Powell stated “that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and genocide may still be occurring.”
According to Bloomberg, up to 100,000 people have been killed by the mostly-Arab government-backed Janjaweed militia. The attacks have driven 1.3 million black Africans out of their homes and into refugee camps in Chad. Another horrific result of the government-led attacks against black Africans is the rape of large numbers of Sudanese women by the Janjaweed.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese government rejected the US declaration of genocide stating that the Bush Administration is using the crisis for its own political gains. The US recently urged the international community to send peacekeepers to Sudan to stop the genocide, reports Reuters.
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