In January 2005, the UN Secretary-General's Commission of Inquiry on the Darfur region of Sudan issued a well documented report that indicated that there was by then already some 2.5 million internally displaced persons as a result of the ongoing violence, more than 200,000 refugees from Darfur into neighbouring Chad, and that Government forces and allied militia known as janjaweed, had committed widespread and consistent war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture, mass rape, summary executions and arbitrary detention.

The Sudanese government has ignored the international response to the Darfur conflict and attempted to cover up its trails with seemingly justified action. It has suppressed information by jailing and killing witnesses since 2004 and tampered with evidence such as mass graves to eliminate their forensic values. Therefore, by obstructing and arresting journalists, the Sudanese government has been able to conceal much of the horrors of the conflict. The most astonishing fact, however, is that the killings of non-Arabs in Darfur is actually sanctioned by the government. Government army helicopters routinely bomb villages and then continue to assault the devastated villages with Sudanese soldiers packed into trucks and followed by the janjaweed on horse or camelback.

In addition, the government not only supports the janjaweed but also directly supplies arms to them. A captured government soldier formerly based in Kebkabiya testified that, “Two officers were sitting in chairs and were ordering eleven soldiers to give the weapons to the Janjaweed. They had lists of Janjaweed, by names. They were writing down the serial number of the weapon next to the name of the Janjaweed to whom the weapon was actually handed over. It took a very long time, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.” In fact, not only did the Sudanese armed forces provide weapons and ammunition to the janjaweed, they also provided uniforms, communications equipment and vehicles. Furthermore, the government of Sudan offers no protection whatsoever to the refugee camps and many of the atrocities occur at the camps. Besides these facts, the Sudanese president El Bashir signed an amendment to the People’s Armed Forces Act, making all government soldiers immune to prosecution. This means that soldiers who committed crimes against humanity cannot be punished. Overall, it has been demonstrated that the Sudanese government supports the ethnic-cleansing in the Darfur region and is ready to hamper any interventionist forces in that area.

Read More About Turbulent Events In Africa's History:

Conflict Diamonds And Oil: The Perpetuators Of War In Africa

Liberia After Two Civil Wars

A Study Of The Biafra War In Nigeria: Causes, Development, And Aftermath