Colin Thomas-Jensen, Policy Adviser

In 1994, at Rwanda’s moment of greatest need, the world turned its back. The Rwandan genocide and the subsequent flight of the genocidaires into the Democratic Republic of the Congo spawned eastern Congo’s complex crisis—one that has led to the deaths of 5.4 million Congolese and threatens the future of millions more. The world has had 14 years to take action against the perpetrators of the genocide and those who now terrorize eastern Congo in their name, but the international response remains sorely inadequate.

It's bad enough that the international community has failed, five years in, to end the genocide in Darfur, and worse still that it reacted with no urgency when the Darfur crisis bled into neighboring Chad. With the root causes of conflict in each country still untended, this regional crisis is poised to deepen.

The unprecedented attack on a suburb of Khartoum by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) demonstrates once again the urgent need for a credible and inclusive peace process to resolve the crisis in Darfur. It is too early to predict what effect the attack will have on the political and military dynamics of the conflict going forward, but Sudan's ruling National Congress Party is making clear that its response will focus on civilians.