Human rights group Amnesty International demanded that Sudan stop arming the ethnic-Arab horse and camel-mounted "Janjaweed" militia, which has been accused of atrocities in the western Darfur region. Unlike the 20-year old civil war down south, the irony in Dafur is that the raiders and the victims are both Muslim. The war in the west is between Sudanese who consider themselves Arab, and those who don't. It's about culture and skin color; black versus brown.

The government has used bombing sorties and Janjaweed attacks to drive tens of thousands of refugees into neighboring Chad since December, when the cease-fire talks collapsed. On February 1, the rebels said Sudanese forces and the Janjaweed had killed more than 175 civilians in recent attacks. - Adam Geibel