U.S. officials accused Khartoum in attacking Africans

The United Nations' special envoy to Sudan said Thursday that the African nation's government is making some progress -- but not enough -- in meeting Security Council demands to rein in the catastrophe in the country's Darfur region.

The council passed a resolution for the government to end the disaster in Darfur, considered the worst current humanitarian crisis in the world. International human rights groups estimate from 15,000 to 30,000 black villagers have been killed in brutal attacks by Arab Janjaweed militias -- ostensibly backed by the Sudanese government -- and 1 million have been displaced since fighting began February 2003, informs CNN News.

According to Reuters, at the United Nations, U.S. officials accused Khartoum of playing a direct role in attacks against African villagers in Darfur and criticized what they said was the U.N.'s failure to emphasize the government's involvement in the crisis.

Under a July 30 resolution, the United Nations gave Sudan until Aug. 30 to make substantial efforts to rein in Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, and improve aid access to more than a million people displaced by fighting in Darfur.

"The obligations which the government of Sudan was asked (to do), we already fulfilled it maybe by more than 70 to 80 percent, so it will be very difficult even for those who ... want to condemn ... Sudan. They will find it difficult to ignore these achievements," Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters in Sudan.

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