As the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region escalates, neighbors Chad and the Central African Republic face growing instability spurred by their own rebel groups. At the center of the spreading conflict is Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group and Erin Mazursky, executive director of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, discuss the escalating crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region, Chad, and the Central African Republic.

In this report the US Institute for Peace (USIP) details proceedings at its Sudan Peace Forum in December 2006 in which Dr Chester Crocker and Dr Francis Deng co-chaired a discussion of overlapping crises in Darfur, Chad and the Central African Republic. The meeting was prompted by recent comments of the United Nations Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, who warned that the crises in Darfur, Chad, and CAR are "intimately linked" and could lead to a "dangerous regional crisis."

In this report Amnesty International says that thousands of women have been raped in Sudan and Chad since the armed conflict began in Darfur in 2003. There have certainly been thousands. The names of 250 women who had been raped, and harrowing information about their cases, were recorded by Amnesty International on a 10-day visit to just three refugee camps in Chad in 2004. Recent months have seen a dramatic increase in the numbers of rapes as Darfur has been plunged into new fighting. In just one camp in Darfur, Kalma camp, the International Rescue Committee reported that rapes of women rose from under four to 200 a month during five weeks in July and August 2006. Overall, despite  the presence of an African Union peacekeeping force (African Union Mission in Sudan, AMIS) and international awareness of what is happening in Darfur, in 2006 rapes and other violence against women and girls have increased, not diminished.

In this report Amnesty International says that the presence of an African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (AMIS) since 2004 has failed to stop the mass killings, rapes and forcible displacement of civilians in the region. Amnesty says that despite the presence already in Sudan of 10,000 UN peacekeepers, whose mandate was extended to include Darfur by the UN Security Council in August 2006, the Darfur region is now so insecure that one third of those affected are inaccessible to humanitarian agencies. Amnesty International’s agenda for effective protection of civilians sets out a 16-point programme that should be implemented by any peacekeeping force in Darfur.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is pushing for a hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force in Sudan’s Darfur region. Khartoum has "agreed in principle" to such an operation, but details such as the size of the force remain to be determined.

CFR Senior Fellow Michael Gerson speaks with reporters about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

Inaction in the face of genocide in Darfur breeds death in the region, but also contempt for international laws and voices which have demanded action—so far to no avail.

Princeton N. Lyman says that despite calls for military intervention in Darfur, he does not believe that such an approach would be practical. He hopes the U.S. special envoy to Darfur will be able to get the parties back to the negotiating table.

Roberta Cohen of the Brookings Institution discusses the expanded African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region. She says the AU force, besides being undermanned and underfunded, is seriously limited by the actions of the Sudanese government.

In this report, Amnesty International argues that the Darfur Peace Agreement of May 2006 has created a new conflict, pitting the government and its allies against the non-signatories.

Sudan continues to refuse a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. As pressure to act mounts, the international community faces a question: Does its “responsibility to protect” trump Sudan’s national sovereignty?

To understand the drivers of conflict and the keys to sustainable peace in eastern Sudan, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), in partnership with the Nairobi Peace Initiative Africa, hosted a discussion workshop in Nairobi in August 2006. This briefing summarizes the main discussions and the background to the conflict.

A small African Union force has proven ineffective in the latest surge of violence against humanitarian workers and civilians in Sudan's Darfur region. A showdown is looming at the United Nations, where there are plans to send 17,000 peacekeepers.

An impotent UN Security Council and an ineffective African Union peacekeeping force have failed to alleviate the misery in Sudan's western Darfur region, where over a hundred thousand have been killed and millions of refugees are threatening security across the region.

David Rieff argues that Darfur demands a consensus from the international community on the topic of military intervention. David Rieff believes that humanitarian intervention in Darfur carries greater risks and costs than "human rightists" are willing to recognize.