Human Rights Watch - Sudan - Crisis in Darfur

Emergency Appeal

Sudanese refugees struggle to raise a collapsed donkey after a 34-day march towards safety in Chad.
© 2004 Private

To the Human Rights Watch family,

I am writing with an urgent request. We need your support.

We are witnessing a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against the local people of Darfur, a region in western Sudan the size of California. You may not have read about this in the papers or seen it on TV—because the Western media have devoted little coverage to the story. But the United Nations has called Darfur the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. This emergency is the result of deliberate human rights abuses.

We have just completed an investigation in western Sudan, where we found that the government and allied Arab militia, called “janjaweed,” have been attacking villages, ransacking and torching homes, and killing and raping civilians. These armed forces say they are fighting rebel groups based in the Darfur region, but in fact they are also targeting innocent civilians. Thousands of people have died and hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes.

Our on-the-ground reporting and high-level advocacy can mobilize the international community to document these attrocities, provide humanitarian aid, and, if necessary, to protect civilians with military force. With the war in Iraq still monopolizing attention, little information is reaching the Western public about this massive crisis. Our reporting is essential, as is our advocacy in the capitals of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, where governments have the power to force Sudan to change.

You can help. Your contribution will underwrite these investigations and help us get this information out to those who can press Sudan to stop. Please support our efforts. Contribute today, then email this page to your friends and colleagues.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Roth
Executive Director

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