The conflict in western Sudan generated global headlines and prompted a humanitarian response by governments, charities and Hollywood celebrities such as George Clooney, Mia Farrow and Don Cheadle.

But despite continuing efforts by activists and aid groups, Darfur seems to get little attention these days.

According to Sudan's government, the war there is over. The international community has shifted its focus from what the United States called genocide in Darfur to broader Sudanese tensions -- a civil war between the Khartoum government in the north and Southern Sudan that ended in 2005 but threatens to re-ignite.

"I would not say there is a war going on in Darfur," Nigerian Gen. Martin Agwai said in August when he stepped down as head of the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission there. Instead, Agwai labeled the continuing violence, which he blamed on banditry and local conflicts, as low intensity conflict.

Even the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, referred to the conflict as "remnants of genocide" a few months ago, noting that rising violence in Southern Sudan eclipsed levels in Darfur.

Analysts, aid workers and others who know Darfur disagree, citing a litany of reasons why the region renowned for human misery continues to pose a major threat to the stability of the country, as well as East and Central Africa.

• There is no peace treaty in Darfur, only a broken agreement and repeated failed efforts to resume talks.

• People still die there, such as the five Rwandan peacekeepers killed in attacks last week.

• The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant this year accusing Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

• Government and rebel forces have battled intermittently throughout the year, forcing thousands more villagers to flee to camps already bulging with more than 2 million displaced people.

"It's very premature to say that the war is over," said Alun McDonald of Oxfam, an international relief group that works in Darfur. "In recent weeks, one of the camps where we work in North Darfur had 6,000 people arrive. There are still clashes between military groups, between different tribal groups."

People already feel neglected and marginalized, which is a key reason for the conflict in the first place.
--Alun McDonald

Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, who wrote a book on the Darfur crisis, said in an interview that more than six years of warfare has changed the nature of the conflict.

The war began with Janjaweed Arab militias backed by Bashir's military sweeping through Darfur in raids against rebel movements and the civilian populations from which the rebels emerged. Now it has bogged down into stalemate caused in part by the destruction wrought so far, according to Reeves.

With thousands of villages destroyed and almost half the estimated pre-war population in camps, Bashir's government has few remaining "targets of opportunity," Reeves said.

Only one rebel movement -- the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) -- is capable of offensive strikes against the Sudan military and allied fighters, but it can't hold any new positions taken, Reeves added.

"You have a stand-off," he said.

The government says the six-year Darfur war killed 10,000 people, while the United Nations and other international groups put the figure at 300,000. The death rate has decreased this year, but unrest continues.

Government bombing of Muhajeriya, a rebel stronghold in South Darfur, in early 2009 forced thousands of people to leave, Reeves said.

Georgette Gagnon, executive director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, said government forces and allied militias attacked Jebel Marra, another rebel stronghold in North Darfur, in September.

"Our research has shown that the situation in Darfur continues to be very insecure and abusive for Darfurians," Gagnon said.

The type of fighting that characterized much of the war -- aerial bombings, raids on villages -- has mostly halted in recent years "because the population is largely displaced" in camps in Darfur and the neighboring country of Chad, Gagnon said.

"But the war is far from over," she said.

Regardless of the level of fighting, the humanitarian situation remains dire. Bashir's government kicked out international aid agencies in March, and while some have been allowed back, conditions at the displacement camps vary and many are struggling to provide basic needs.

In an essay published by the Sudan Tribune in September, Reeves wrote of the misery: "Nor does 'low-intensity' describe the present soul-destroying nature of existence within the camps: the relentless privations, the pervasive threats to health, the loss of hope, the acute sense of abandonment, and the anger and despair that relentlessly haunt daily existence."

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