"Human rights are being violated on every continent. More people are oppressed than free" (Wiesel 187). Ellie Wiesel was quoted here in talking about the events and persecutions of the Jews during the Holocaust in 1939-1945, but this same "oppression" is being displayed again right at this moment. There are the examples of genocide in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda, but currently, the atrocities occurring in Darfur are what we can make a difference in. Inhumane attacks and killings of the citizens of Darfur and neighboring Chad are happening, and it is time to end this reign of terror.
Darfur is a region in Western Sudan that neighbors Chad, Libya, and the Central African Republic. It is one of the poorest parts of Africa, and the six million citizens hardly ever have "good times" (Darfur). Since February of 2003, nearly 500,000 tribal Africans have perished from Janjaweed attacks. The Janjaweed are government funded "Devils on Horseback." Helpless villagers are killed through a process of rape, torture, and murder. These raids are an attempt to exterminate the poor, native black African farmers. The Janjaweed has succeeded in displacing three million people to Chad, and more than four million Darfurians are starving to death. In Darfur, about five hundred people are killed daily due to these atrocities. Although two cease-fires have been called since 2004, the violence continues to escalate. These acts are not going unnoticed; the situation was labeled genocide, a "Reign of Terror" by The United States Congress (About 1).
What would you do if these next situations were to happen to you? On March 9,2008 Hilam, a three year old girl from Darfur was pierced in the leg with shrapnel while the Sudanese government bombed her village. According to Hilam’s doctors, her limb will have to be amputated, Kaltouma, her eleven-year-old sister has already had her leg amputated because of a similar injury. Over 13,000 Sudanese have immigrated to Chad to elude these attacks....