Arrest warrants for a Sudanese government minister and a janjaweed militia leader suspected of committing war crimes in Darfur, have been issued by the International Criminal Court.

A Sudanese accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court made his first press appearance in a local newspaper today to profess his innocence.

The world is facing a huge human tragedy in Darfur unless the international community intervenes, a humanitarian organisation said today.

THE UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on violations in Sudan’s strife-torn western region of Darfur today, after a rebuke from Kofi Annan that it has not paid enough attention to rights violations in the province.

Four million Sudanese in conflict-wracked Darfur are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance as newly rearmed Arab militias and rebels escalate attacks and resume looting and burning villages, the UN humanitarian chief said.

Sudan has agreed in principle to allow a joint United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force into Darfur.

The United Nations said today that hundreds of men identified by residents as Janjaweed militia forces killed about 50 civilians in an attack last week on West Darfur villages and a camp for displaced people.

The United Nations has decided to significantly reduce UN staff in parts of Sudan’s volatile West Darfur region because of increasing insecurity and the growing possibility of a war between Sudan and neighbouring Chad.

The UN World Food Program suspended food convoys to the Darfur region in western Sudan after rebel forces attacked the market town of Ghubaysh and the government retaliated, UN humanitarian officials said.

More than 100,000 people are essentially being held captive by armed militias in West Darfur, international aid agency Oxfam said today.

A visiting American senior official has said his visit to a displaced persons camp in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region was “very disturbing” and said neither Sudan, the United Nations nor the international community were doing enough to address the crisis.

GENEROUS Irish Examiner readers have helped GOAL expand significantly its humanitarian operations in Darfur, Western Sudan.

CORK-BASED nurse Niamh Casey recognises that she has been given a unique opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable people in Darfur, western Sudan.

“WE are here because they came on camels and horses and attacked us. We lost everything; the village, our home, all our things, our animals, our lives.”