(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many people in the United States consider their country has a responsibility to stop violence in the African country of Sudan, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 49 per cent of respondents believe the U.S. must do something about the ethnic genocide in the Darfur region, down two points since December.

Sudan has been ravaged by food shortages and deadly attacks in the Darfur region, where two black African armed groups—the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)—are fighting the mainly Arab central administration and pro-government militias known as Janjaweed. According to the United Nations (UN), the conflict has led to the deaths of at least 200,000 people, and the displacement of more than 2.5 million inhabitants.

In March 2006, U.S. state secretary Condoleezza Rice referred to the situation in Sudan's Darfur region as "genocide." A report conducted by the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights claims that 400,000 people have died in the area since 2003.

On May 1, the UN Security Council unanimously approved extending the organization's current mandate in Sudan—known as UNMIS—until the end of October. UNMIS has a staff of 12,000 people and was created in March 2005 to help maintain a peace deal between Sudan's government and southern rebels.

The UN has repeatedly asked the Sudanese government for permission to send 20,000 UN peacekeepers into Darfur to stop the ongoing carnage. Sudanese president Omar al-Beshir has repeatedly rejected the calls, agreeing only to the presence of peacekeepers from the Arab League, reinforced by 3,000 UN troops. 45 per cent of respondents favour the use of U.S. troops in the Darfur region of Sudan as part of a multinational force to help end the ethnic genocide there, down eight points since December.

On Jun. 11, the Sudanese government agreed to a revised plan for a joint UN-African Union (AU) peacekeeping force for Darfur, with the AU in charge of running day-to-day operations, and the UN retaining overall control of between 17,000 to 19,000 peacekeepers. Al-Beshir wrote in a letter: "We are ready to commit ourselves to an immediate ceasefire within a comprehensive package to be coordinated by the UN and the AU along the lines of reinvigorating the political process."

Polling Data

Do you think the United States has a responsibility to do something about the ethnic genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, or doesn't the United States have this responsibility?

Would you favour or oppose the use of U.S. troops in the Darfur region of Sudan as part of a multinational force to help end the ethnic genocide there?

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