The first genocide this century is raging in the Western Darfur region of Sudan and, despite having been acknowledged for a decade, it continues unabated. Never before has a genocide been identified as such while in progress, then left to take its brutal course.

In 2003, the Arab-Muslim government of Sudan launched a counter-insurgency offensive against two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, which were fighting for social and economic equality. Darfur’s black-African Fur and Zaghawa tribes, suspected of being rebel sympathizers, were targeted by the government-sponsored Janjaweed militia, which went on the rampage, burning homes and slaughtering civilians.

There was an opportunity to stop the carnage in 2005, by making the cessation of violence in Darfur a condition of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ostensibly brought 20 years of war between the North and South of Sudan to an end.

The cost of so-called peace in the South though, was silence on the oil-rich region of Darfur. The CPA had other inherent flaws, such as failing to resolve the status of the Abyei region as well as of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, leaving those civilians exposed and vulnerable when the South seceded in 2011. Neglecting to deal with disputed oil-rich border regions allowed Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir to exploit border uncertainty, which he continues to do today.

Also in 2005, the international community unanimously signed the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ mandate. This requires them to intervene, by any means necessary, to protect civilians being persecuted by their sovereign state. It has never been implemented in Darfur. In total 16 UN resolutions have been passed in Darfur, all of which have been ignored.

The signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement in 2006 resulted in an acceleration of violence. The agreement excluded all but one rebel group and collapsed before the ink was dry. Khartoum retaliated with gusto.

Black African villages were razed to the ground, boy children were tossed on bonfires, men were butchered, while girls and women were serially raped. Livestock was taken and crops were destroyed. Any survivors were destined for life in camps for internally displaced people, indefinitely dependent on aid for sustenance and shelter.

President al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in 2009. Within days, he expelled 16 aid agencies from Darfur.

Over the past 12 years, an estimated 500,000 people have been slaughtered and some four million displaced; all of whom are now dependent on aid, without which they face imminent death by starvation and disease. Six years after his indictment, al-Bashir has evaded arrest despite travelling to countries within the ICC’s jurisdiction.

South Sudan became independent in 2011 following a self-determination referendum. In 2012, Sudan and South Sudan signed an agreement that meant oil supplies from the latter could resume their passage through pipes in the former but, like the CPA before it, the deal failed to resolve the status of Abyei, the disputed state that abuts the North-South border.

As a result, hundreds of thousands more people have become refugees dependent on aid. Civilians in South Kordofan and Blue Nile are under constant bombardment from the capital Khartoum. The unresolved issues threaten to destabilize the already fragile fledgling state of South Sudan.

In 2013, a public uprising against Khartoum’s lifting of fuel subsidies resulted in 200 demonstrators being shot dead by the militia. The government’s exorbitant military spending is crippling the imploding economy. But it’s the army, and international indifference, that enables the regime to keep its tenuous grip on power and its fugitives out of the ICC’s dock.

Fact file

Leader	President Omar al-Bashir.
Economy	GNI per capita $1,130 (Egypt $3,160, UK $39,110). Monetary unit: Sudanese pound. Main exports: gold, oil and petroleum products, cotton, sesame, livestock, gum arabic. The economy was dependent on oil for foreign-exchange earnings, so the loss of three-quarters of its oil supplies following the independence of South Sudan has been a major blow. The economy is also hampered by sanctions imposed due to the regime’s war crimes. Figures are unavailable for many key indicators but economists consider that the inflation rate is running at over 50%.
People	38.0 million. Annual population growth rate 1990-2013 2.8%. People per square kilometre 15 (UK 260).
Health	Infant mortality 51 per 1,000 live births (Egypt 19, UK 4). Lifetime risk of maternal death 1 in 60 (UK 1 in 6,900). HIV prevalence rate 0.2%. 45% of Sudanese do not have access to clean drinking water, though this rises to 90% in Darfur. 76% of Sudanese do not have adequate sanitation.
Environment	Desertification is an ongoing problem, and competition over scarce water resources can result in conflict. UNEP identifies a strong link between land degradation, desertification and conflict in Darfur.
Culture	Arab (70%), Fur, Beja, Nuba, Zaghawa.
Religion	Sunni Muslim, with a small Christian minority.
Language	Arabic and English both have official status.
Human Development Index	0.473, 166th of 187 countries (Egypt 0.682, UK 0.892).

Country ratings in detail

Income distribution	The gulf between the elite in Khartoum and the mass of ordinary people is vast.
Literacy	73%. Net enrolment in primary school is 52% but completion far lower.
Life expectancy	61 years (Egypt 71, UK 81). Up from 56 when last profiled.
Freedom	There is no media freedom in Sudan. Foreign media are heavily restricted and for the most part not permitted access. The Darfuri-run Radio Dabanga is broadcast from Holland.
Position of women	Rape of girls and women is routinely used as a weapon of war in Darfur yet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s recent report on the region recorded incidences of carjacking but not of rape. FGM affects 68% of Sudanese girls and women. Public floggings of women are not uncommon.
Sexual minorities	Homosexuality is punishable by death: on the third offence for men and the fourth offence for women.
New Internationalist assessment	Omar al-Bashir was re-elected as president in April. The vote was boycotted by major opposition parties and criticized by Western governments as illegitimate. Sudan is plagued by massive foreign debt, which the government cannot repay. Without radical political reforms involving the cessation of regional violence, economic recovery is unobtainable. There is growing unrest within the ruling National Congress Party and previously loyal supporters are becoming alienated. Two things stand between President al-Bashir and defeat: his army and the international community’s inaction.