Summed Up Story

What's going on in Darfur? Well its a long story so I will sum it up. Darfur is a province in western Sudan about the size of France. In Darfur there are two main ethnic groups, Muslim Africans and Muslim Arabs. In 2003 war broke out when two African rebel movements the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) started attacking local government bases and police stations because they claimed that the government had discriminated against the African Muslims, and favored the Arabs. In response to the attacks, the Sudanese government formed and sent Arab Militias know as the Janjaweed to crush the rebels. In 2006-08 the world gave all responsibilities to the African Union (AU), which sent a small force of about 7,000. Being out numbered and out gunned made the AU mandate of protecting citizens and disarming the Janjaweed and rebel forces nearly impossible without the aid of the UN. Today the Janjaweed is responsible for mass killings, rapes and whippings. I believe that the United Nations should send a larger force to the Darfur region to ensure a successful mandate on the protection of civilians, the security of humanitarian organizations and to disarm the Janjaweed.

CBS News Notebook: Darfur December 10, 2007 1:58 PM