Two Republican members of the U.S. Congress, Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Frank Wolf, travelled to western Darfur in late June 2004. Upon their return, the lawmakers released a report detailing their visit to overhwlemed camps of displaced black African Muslims under attack by Arab 'Janjaweed'. The report discusses whether the conflict should be classified as 'genocide', the involvement of the Sudanese government in the ethnic cleansing, and lack of humanitarian access to refugees. The lawmakers call for more action from the United Nations, the African Union, and the Bush administration to resolve the conflict and alleviate the misery.[read a pdf of the report here].

The men pictured here are among the few of their generation at camp Mornay in western Darfur, which holds 70,000-80,000 people. Estimates of the number killed during 18 months of fighting from January 2003 and July 2004 range from 10,000 to 30,000. According to USAID, this number could rapidly rise unles the Sudanese government allows greater humanitarian access to the one million internally displaced people in Darfur.

The Office of Representative Frank Wolf provided the pictures for this photo essay.