The tragedy of Darfur: ethnic conflict in Sudan has killed 200,000 civilians and created 2 million refugees.

• Author: Lacey, Marc
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

When his family's village in Darfur was attacked by janjaweed militias, Idris Ishmael managed to run away. But his wife, Halima, was eight months pregnant and could only hobble. So she stayed in the village, along with the couple's four children, ages 3 to 12. "The janjaweed will rape and kill my family," the 32-yearold man said. "And there's nothing I can do."

In the last three years, more than 200,000 civilians have been killed in Darfur, a region of western Sudan about the size of Texas. In addition, about 2 million people--a third of Darfur's 6 million inhabitants--have been displaced, mostly to neighboring Chad. President Bush is among many in the international community who have denounced the violence in Darfur as genocide.

These people are victims of a conflict that pits Arab Africans against black Africans. (Both groups are Muslim.) The trouble began in 2003 when a rebel movement began demanding greater political and economic rights for black Darfurians from the Arab-dominated Sudanese government. The government responded by giving free rein to the janjaweed, Arab militias on horses and camels that began attacking black villages, killing and raping the residents.

Now the chaos is spreading west into Chad. Arab gunmen from Darfur have pushed across the desert into Chad, stealing cattle, burning crops, and killing anyone who resists. At least 20,000 Chadians have been driven from their homes, making them refugees in their own country.

"You may have thought the terrible situation in Darfur couldn't get worse, but it has," says Peter Takirambudde of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "Sudan's policy of arming militias and letting them loose is spilling over the border, and civilians have no protection from their attacks, in Darfur or in Chad."

A GROWING CONFLICT

Now, hundreds of thousands of people in eastern Chad, along with the 200,000 Sudanese who have fled there for safety, find themselves caught up in a growing conflict between Chad and Sudan, which have a history of violence and meddling in each other's affairs.

Two years ago, the Sudanese government responded to international pressure over Darfur by sending police units to the region to stop janjaweed attacks on civilians. But they haven't stopped the attacks, and they now admit that nobody controls large stretches of Darfur's countryside.

In many cases, the police have joined with the janjaweed, turning a blind eye to their attacks or even joining in. The police...