Sudan Militia Target Darfur Civilians as Many Flee, Amnesty Says

Members of Sudan’s security forces targeted Darfur civilians during intercommunal fighting, part of a wave of violence that’s displaced half a million people in the western Sudanese region over the past year, Amnesty International said.

At least 500 people were killed and thousands of homes looted and burned in clashes between Misseriya and Salamat ethnic groups in central Darfur that began in April, London-based Amnesty said in a report today. More than 50,000 people were displaced by at least seven months of attacks in which members of security forces and allied militias participated, it said, citing witnesses. Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman denied the government ordered the attacks.