Pop Quiz: What is currently the worst humanitarian crisis in the world?

If you said Tsunami stricken Southeast Asia, guess again. According to the UN, that dubious distinction falls to Africa's largest country, Sudan, where thousands are dying monthly in Darfur, at the hands of a government-sponsored militia. So why are we hearing so little about it in the media? Why is the US claiming genocide but not the UN? What is going on?

Genocide. It s been a decade since one million people were massacred in 100 days in Rwanda, and no one is eager to let history repeat itself in Sudan. However, a recent UN report refutes claims of genocide in Darfur while the US argues for genocide yet has done nothing.

• In the past two years, up to 400,000 people have died and 2 million made homeless.
  
  
• The Janjaweed, or "devils on horseback," burn rural villages killing livestock and men, and systematically rape women and girls. If the village rebuilds, the attack repeats.
  
  
• A new peace agreement to end the 20-year-old Sudanese civil war does not end the ongoing crisis in Darfur.

Does the conflict lie in differences between Black and Muslim Sudanese or has the media created a simplistic frame by which we view Darfur? How might the picture change if we acknowledged shrinking resources due to over farming and an expanding Sahara?

Humanitarian responses to disasters have changed since 9/11. The cooperation demonstrated after the Tsunami is harder to find in the country that once sheltered Al Qaeda. Religious allegiances, foreign investments, and political power plays affect when and where countries get involved, and at what cost. Why aren t the Sudanese leaders and Janjaweed being held accountable? Don t we have a new International Criminal Court for just this occasion?

• Some analysts say the veto power of China Sudan s largest oil investor and Russia supplier of arms to the Sudanese government affect Security Council inaction.
  
  
• African leaders, through the African Union have deployed a peacekeeping force of 3,500 but a lack of western funding has prevented deploying more than half of the force.

What is the history of Sudan and how has it given rise to the current conflict in Darfur? Is this as simple as an ethnic conflict between different cultural groups? What other factors come into play in Sudan? How can we prevent the use of ethnic differences to spur conflict? Where do natural resources fit in? What part does the small arms play in ongoing violence? Why does Africa seem to get the least international attention when it comes to colonialism spawned internal conflict? Has the economy of oil affected both the UN and US position on genocide? Where is the International Criminal Court in all this, and why aren t leaders of the violence being prosecuted there? Can we offer humanitarian aid without making the situation worse? What is the role of the African Union? What do they plan to do? How effective is their intended solution and what do they need to accomplish it? Do we have a responsibility to prevent genocide? Have we reached compassionate overload? Is international intervention the solution?

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