Sudan claimed that the Dafur rebels fighting in western Sudan have been defeated and that the entire state is in government hands (which the rebels denied). Over the weekend, thousands of new refugees fled government bombing raids and horse-mounted militia raids. 

In a February 8 editorial, the Boston Globe was the first major American paper to point out the ethnic cleansing campaign that has driven more than 700,000 people from their homes and killed as many as 30,000 in Dafur. With agricultural production brought to a halt, mass starvation may soon accompany genocidal massacres, death by exposure, and disease. Sadly, nothing seems to change in places like the Sudan unless it becomes a 'cause celeb'. - Adam Geibel