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Sudan and Darfur (last updated January 9, 2005) (back to top) U.S. officials have long been concerned about the civil war in Sudan, which has been primarily between the northern, urban region controlled by the government and the southern region which follows traditional beliefs and Christianity. U.S. officials began expressing concern specifically about the Darfur region of western Sudan in late 2003 because of fighting between rebel groups and government-supported tribal militia and concluded in September 2004 that genocide was occurring in Darfur.  Rwanda (last updated February 5, 2003) (back to top) One of the worst massacres in modern history unfolded in the central African country Rwanda in 1994, in some part due to the United States' and the international community's failure to act more quickly and decisively. About 800,000 people died from April to July 1994, the result of a planned massacre by members of the majority Hutu tribe against the Tutsi minority, as well as the resulting civil war and social upheaval. The Clinton administration, already reeling at the time from criticism of U.S. involvement in other countries such as Somalia, resisted calling the events genocide and did not take any immediate action except to safeguard the Americans then in the country. Years later, President Bill Clinton apologized in March 1998 for his handling of the crisis, saying that "we did not do act quickly enough after the killings began. We should not have allowed the refugee camps to become safe haven for the killers. We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide." Ethnic tensions had been building in Rwanda long before they culminated with the violence of the spring and summer of 1994. One of the most densely populated countries in the world, Rwanda was divided into three ethnic groups : the Hutu (85 percent), the Tutsis (14 percent), and the Twa (about 1 percent). Hutus held power since the 1960s and a Hutu, Juvenal Habyarimana, had been president since a military coup in 1973, but Tutsis who had fled decades earlier still sought to retake the country. Fighting between Rwanda's army and the Tutsi-led Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) based in Uganda led to a cease-fire in 1990, and eventually to talks in 1993 that were to result in a democratically-elected government and a broad-based transitional government. The United Nations supported these efforts by sending a small peacekeeping mission of about 2,500 personnel to help the transition. Nevertheless, these efforts ended in disaster. First, President Habyarimana and Burundi Presidnet Cyprien Ntaryamira died on April 6, 1994 when their plane crashed under mysterious circumstances. Immediately afterwards, the Hutu-led attacks against the Tutsis began. Hutus from Rwanda's armed forces and youth militias hunted down Tutsis with machetes and more advanced weapons, using the radio to coordinate their attacks and to locate Tutsis' hiding locations. Hutus also Belgium quickly pulled its forces from the UN mission, reducing its size by more than a third. The United Nations' Security Council then decided to withdraw even more personnel from the UN mission, leaving it simply with 270 people to act as an intermediary between the warring factions and to help with humanitarian operations. Fighting continued until July 1994, when the Tutsi-led Rwandese Patriotic Front established control over most of the country. By this time, almost half the entire country had been displaced internally; both Hutus and Tutsis had fled for neighboring countries, creating a massive refugee crisis exacerbated by violence within the camps and an outbreak of cholera. The United Nations slowly sent forces in the summer and fall of 1994 back into Rwanda to help with humanitarian efforts, reaching full strength of about 5,500 personnel in October 1994. The United Nations also established an international tribunal to prosecute persons responsible for genocide; by 2002, more than 80 people had been indicted, and eight had been convicted, including the prime minister at the time. Critics have long blamed the magnitude of the Rwandan genocide on the international community's failure to act more decisively. Boutros-Boutros Ghali, the Secretary General of the United Nations at the time, said in 1994 that the international community had at least acquiesced in the genocide through its inactions. In 1999, a U.N.-commissioned inquiry concluded that the international community had failed by not providing enough resources and lacking the political will to take action; Secretary General Kofi Annan, who succeeded Boutros-Ghali, acknowledged that the United Nations had failed its obligation to prevent genocide. "All of us must bitterly regret that we did not do more to prevent it. There was a United Nations force in the country at the time, but it was neither mandated nor equipped for the forceful action which would have been needed to prevent or halt the genocide," Annan said. "On behalf of the United Nations, I acknowledge this failure and express my deep remorse." Sources: Information about the United Nations' mission in Rwanda, including detailed background on the events of 1994, is on-line here. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is on-line here. President Bill Clinton's March 1998 remarks on Rwanda were quoted in October 1998 remarks by Ambassador David J. Scheffer, on-line here. The State Department's background notes on Rwanda are on-line here. David Halberstam, War in a Time of Peace (Simon & Schuster, Touchstone edition, 2002). Conflict Diamonds (last updated January 10, 2004) (back to top) Since 1998, the international community has been concerned about "conflict diamonds" - diamonds sold by forces in the African countries of Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo to fund their military operations. These concerns have resulted in changes in how many countries, including the United States, regulate the importation of diamonds. In April 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Clean Diamond Trade Act, which makes illegal the importation into the United States any rough diamond that has not been certified as not being a conflict diamond. Illegally importing conflict diamonds is punishable criminally and civilly, with criminal penalties up to 10 years in jail and $50,000 fines. "Conflict diamonds have been used by rebel groups in Africa to finance their atrocities committed on civilian populations and their insurrections against internationally recognized governments," Bush said in an April 25, 2003 statement. More specifically, Congress found in passing the law that both rebels and state actors alike have used diamonds to fund wars in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo "in large part for control of diamond mining areas." Congress found that more than 3.7 million people have died and more than 6.5 million people have been driven from their homes because of such wars. Since 1998, the United Nations, human-rights advocates and the diamond industry have been working to halt the trade of conflict diamonds. The United Nations banned illicit diamonds in 1998. Diamond-producing countries in 2000 began the Kimberly Process, a negotiation process to regulate the diamond trade that was named after the South African city where the process began. 52 nations adopted the Kimberly Process Certification scheme in November 2002, and it officially came into force on January 1, 2003. Conflict diamonds reportedly make up about 3-4 percent of all diamonds produced. Other large diamond-producing countries that have not raised the same concerns are Botswana, South Africa, Australia, and Russia. Sources: Information about the Clean Diamond Trade Act, Public Law No. 108-19, can be found via the Library of Congress on-line here. President George W. Bush's April 25, 2003 statement is on-line here. The Kimberly Process is on-line here. The World Diamond Council, a diamond industry organization created in 2000 amidst concerns about conflict diamonds, is on-line here. Liberia (last updated July 27, 2003) (back to top) A resurgence of fighting in the West African country of Liberia in 2003 has drawn international attention and new calls for President Charles Taylor to step down. United States President George Bush has called explicitly for Taylor's resignation and has said that the United States may supply military forces to a peacekeeping force if one is established by the Economic Community of West African States. Liberia was engulfed in a civil war lasting from 1989 to 1996, and that ended only when Taylor was elected president in July 1997. Fighting resumed in 2001 and escalated in early 2003, with the rebel groups the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Development (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) receiving support from Liberia's neighbors Guinea and the Ivory Coast. The government signed a ceasefire with LURD and MODEL on June 17, 2003, but fighting continued nonetheless. A warlord who initiated the civil war with a 1989 invasion, Charles Taylor has been widely criticized for Liberia's instability and for human rights violations including the use of child soldiers. He has also been condemned for supporting a decade-long civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone, and a special court convened to prosecute war crimes stemming from that conflict announced in June 2003 that it had indicted Taylor three months earlier. Since 2001, the United Nations has imposed sanctions against Liberia and called for restrictions on Liberian diamonds (reportedly used to fund the fighting) because of Liberia's involvement in the Sierra Leone conflict. Taylor said in early July 2003 that he would step down from office and leave the country, but had not done so by the end of the month. Liberia itself was founded by freed slaves from the United States in 1820. These freed slaves, called Americo-Liberians, established what is now the country's capitol city of Monrovia and named it after U.S. President James Monroe. Liberia was then ruled as a one-party state until Samuel K. Doe seized power in 1980. Civil war began in 1989 with Taylor's invasion from the Ivory Coast, and led to Doe's death in 1990. Taylor finally agreed to the formation of a transitional government in 1996, and won special election in 1997. Sources: The State Department has information on Liberia on-line here. Human Rights Watch has a June 20, 2003 background briefing on Liberia on-line here. A UN press release dated June 5, 2003 about the extension of sanctions against Liberia is on-line here. The Special Court for Sierra Leone is on-line here. The Democratic Republic of Congo (last updated July 27, 2003) (back to top) Formerly known as Zaire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been wracked by a devastating civil war involving its neighbors since August 1998, but developments since late 2002 have increased hopes for an eventual peace. Nevertheless, fighting continues, especially in the Ituri area in the country's northeastern region. About two to five million people have died because of the conflict, according to various estimates. According to a 2003 mortality study by the International Rescue Committee, the DRC's civil war resulted in at least 3.3 million deaths from August 1998 to November 2002, or more deaths than any conflict but World War II. In an April 8, 2003 press release, IRC President George Rupp called the war "a humanitarian catastrophe of horrid and shocking proportions … [T]he death toll from all the recent wars in the Balkans don't even come close. Yet, the crisis has received scant attention from international donors and the media." The civil war grew out of major upheaval in the middle and late 1990s. President Laurent-Desire Kabila took control of the government and the capitol city of Kinshasa in 1997, but he was challenged by forces primarily in the eastern part of the country that were still loyal to Mobutu and were backed by neighboring countries Rwanda and Uganda. This conflict began in August 1998, drew in other African countries and has been called "Africa's world war" by some. Steps towards peace have been gradual. In 1999, the DRC and its allies signed a ceasefire agreement with Rwanda and Uganda, and the United Nations then deployed a peacekeeping mission (known as MONUC) to the DRC to help monitor implementation of that agreement. In July 2002, the presidents of the DRC and of Rwanda signed the Pretoria Accord, and Rwanda accordingly withdrew its forces throughout late 2002. The DRC then signed a ceasefire agreement with the two main rebel groups on December 30, 2002. A new transitional government was established in July 2003 with Joseph Kabila, who succeeded his father, remaining as president, and with leaders of the two main rebel groups (the Congolese Rally for Democracy (CGD) and the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC)) serving as vice-presidents.  AIDS in Africa (Last updated: June 2, 2001) (back to top) Far and away, sub-Saharan Africa is suffering from AIDS more than any other region in the world. According to the United Nations' reports as of December 2000, there are about 25.3 million adults and children living with HIV/AIDS (comprising 8.8 percent of the adult population). About 3.8 million of those living with AIDS in sub-Saharan African are newly infected in 2000, which is slightly less than the number in 1999, giving hope that the incidence of HIV is stabilizing. HIV/AIDS is so prevalent in sub-Saharan African that it accounts for 70.1 percent of the cases worldwide; there were 36.1 million reported cases as of December 2000. By contrast, North America has 920,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, making up just 0.6 percent of the region's population and 2.5 percent of the cases worldwide. As a geographical region, only the Caribbean has HIV incidence making up more than 1% of the population; it has an adult prevalence rate of 2.3 percent. 
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