Sudan denies genocide, claims 'tribal conflict'

Sudan’s foreign minister yesterday dismissed claims by the UN that his country’s Darfur region is experiencing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, saying instead that atrocities committed there were caused by “tribal conflict”.

Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail also said fighting between government-backed militias and non-Arab African rebel groups that has displaced 1.4 million villagers from their homes was not ethnic cleansing. More than 50,000 people have died in the conflict, which began last year.