Sudan has dismissed as unjustifiable the threat of slapping new sanctions because of the Darfur conflict, vowing to do everything it can to protect what it sees as its national security.

HUNDREDS of villages in the Darfur region of western Sudan have been abandoned after a year-and-a-half of attacks by Arab militias, known as the janjaweed.

SUDANESE Arab militiamen rape women and young girls in a violent campaign intended to hurt, humiliate and drive black Africans from the troubled western region of Darfur, a human rights organisation said yesterday.