DARFUR UPDATE: Here’s a roundup of newspaper editorials from the Center for American Progress. Meanwhile here’s another troubling news report:

Over one million non-Arabs have been displaced within Darfur, predominantly by attacks conducted by Arab Janjawid militias, who are reportedly allied to the government. The government denies involvement in the attacks. Up to 200,000 people are estimated to have fled to neighbouring Chad, while estimates of numbers killed vary from between 15,000 and 30,000.

The US Agency for International Development recently warned that a further 350,000 might die over the coming months from a combination of hunger and disease.

On Sunday, the head of the African Union (AU), Alpha Oumar Konare, flew into Darfur on a two-day assessment of the situation. Sudanese television reported that President Umar Hassan al-Bashir met Konare in Khartoum to discuss the situation. Bashir had earlier ordered security forces to disarm all groups, including the Arab militia blamed for perpetrating atrocities in Darfur, known as the Janjawid.

Progress is slow, if it exists at all. Bashir’s government is behind the massacres, and any cooperation we get from it will be forced, and will last only as long as the pressure is on.