Le conflit de Darfour s’avère être un véritable casse-tête aux conséquences humanitaires désastreuses. Les pays arabes couvrent le régime soudanais et la Cour pénale internationale ouvre quand à elle une enquête sur les exactions du régime soudanais. Située dans l’ouest du Soudan, la région du Darfour est en proie depuis 2003 à une terrible guerre civile qui a déjà tué environ 200 000 personnes.

Un territoire perdu , au centre de l’Afrique, où s’affrontent les intérets de l’Ouest e de l’Est. Il a fallu que le chaos dans lequel est plongé le Darfour atteigne son paroxysme et que l’on y compte, selon les Nations unies, 400 000 morts et 2,5 millions de réfugiés, pour que les grands de ce monde s’émeuvent et parlent de génocide. Ce drame ravage la société soudanaise depuis plus de cinquante ans. Provoqué par des sécheresses successives, des haines tribales, les rébellions, leur repession sanglante, les massacres continus qui en ont résulté, au fini au bout de plus d’un demi siècle, par émouvoir le monde occidental.

La première fois que le Darfour s´est signalé à la face du monde, c´était il y avingt ans, en 1985, suite à des famines atroces qui ont vu se mobiliser mollement la communauté internationale, c´était le début de l´exploitation médiatique de la misère du monde. Nous avons vu des hommes politiques se faire flasher - in situ- avec un petit sac de riz sur l´épaule...

Last month, four days after the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed, the desperate and angry residents of Kalma camp in South Darfur lashed out against the African Union (AU), the regional body charged with observing a failed 2004 ceasefire and brokering the latest deal. Demonstrators looted an AU police post and brutally killed an unarmed Sudanese translator. Anger at the peace deal and the forces behind it is not limited to Kalma. Similar post-agreement violence has erupted in numerous other squalid displacement camps across Darfur.

The Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) signed under African Union (AU) auspices on 5 May 2006 between Sudan’s government and the faction of the insurgent Sudan Liberation Army led by Minni Arkou Minawi (SLA/MM) is a first step toward ending the violence but strong, coordinated action is needed if it is to take hold.

History shows us that genocides can happen only if four important conditions are in place. There must be the cover of a war. Ethnic grievances must be manipulated and exaggerated. Ordinary citizens must be deputized by their government to become executioners. And the rest of the world must be persuaded to look away and do nothing. This last is the most shameful of all, especially so because genocide is happening again right now in Darfur and the world community has done precious little to stop the killings.

The international strategy for dealing with the Darfur crisis primarily through the small (7,000 troops) African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) is at a dead end. AMIS credibility is at an all-time low, with the ceasefire it could never monitor properly in tatters. In the face of this, the international community is backing away from meaningful action.

At places like Davos and Harvard, the world's elite rarely stop fretting about the dangers of a too powerful America. Well, if you want to know what the world looks like without U.S. leadership, Exhibit A is Darfur in Sudan.

The security situation in Darfur has continued to deteriorate in several areas. Peace talks in Abuja failed to meet the 31 December 2005 deadline set by the parties themselves. Following the start of the seventh round of talks on 29 November, little progress was registered, except in the commission on wealth sharing. Since mid-January 2006, the overall pace of negotiations has picked up, although the parties have not yet been able to reach agreement on any of the major issues under discussion in either the powersharing commission or the commission dealing with security arrangements.

Since July 2003, Sudanese government forces and militia forces, known as “Janjaweed”, have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes on a massive scale during counterinsurgency operations in Darfur, Sudan’s western region bordering Chad. Civilians have suffered direct attack from land and air, summary execution, rape, torture, and the pillaging of their property.

Bold new action is urgently required to safeguard the inhabitants of Darfur, many of whom are still dying or face indefinite displacement. If the African Union (AU), which plans only to have 7,700 troops and police on the ground by September, cannot deploy the larger, more capable force needed to protect civilians, NATO troops should help bridge the gaps. The EU and NATO already give significant financial and logistical support to the AU Mission (AMIS), but political sensitivities have kept non-African troops out of Darfur.

Over 80 per cent of Americans support a tougher international response to the current situation in Darfur, a new International Crisis Group/Zogby poll finds. This includes backing for military measures, sanctions and International Criminal Court prosecutions against the Sudanese government and its leaders responsible for the tragedy.

With the high-level conference on the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) set to begin in Addis Ababa on 26 May 2005, the International Crisis Group is urging much stronger international intervention to stop the ongoing killing in Darfur.

Three resolutions have failed to stem the violence; the fourth, now being debated, must be strong enough to make a difference.

Crisis Group calls for determined international action to protect those still acutely at risk in Darfur.