Sudan: April 30, 2005

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The African Union (AU) expects to have 3,000 peacekeepers in Darfur by June, and 7,700 by June. By the end of the year, the AU wants to have 12,000 troops in place. But given the size of Darfur, it would take a force of at least 50,000 troops, well equipped with trucks and helicopters, to patrol the area and enforce the peace. A smaller force would be constantly chasing after bands of Arab tribesmen who had completed their bloody raids, and were blending back into the civilian population. No one knows how many have died in two years of violence, but extensive interviews with refugees indicates that the death toll from the violence has been (at least) over a hundred people a day for over two years.  The deaths are not from car bombs, set off within range of many foreign journalists, but from thousands of Arab gunmen, raping, pillaging and killing in remote villages, or the fringes of refugee camps.