Over the past month, the outpouring of aid for Haiti has been monumental. The Insider reports that George Clooney’s “Hope for Haiti Now” global benefit raised $58 million the day after the televised event, setting a new telethon record; and the “Hope for Haiti Now” album’s one-day pre-order sales set the record for any album on iTunes.

Nothing should detract from the suffering of the Haitian people, yet it’s puzzling how some of the world’s most horrific tragedies garner little attention. For the last seven years, the people of Darfur, in the western region of Sudan, have been victims of genocide, which should have attracted as much attention as earthquakes (if not more). It’s a devastation that cannot be pushed aside by bulldozers. And, unlike earthquakes, genocide can actually be prevented.

The systematic killings in Darfur began in 2003. Of the 6 million people that had lived in the region, experts estimate that more than 300,000 were murdered in two years by government-backed militias and the Sudanese military, and nearly 3 million are refugees. The United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force now lacks the funds and supplies to properly help the 2.7 million internally displaced Darfuris living in camps. (Another 300,000 are refugees across the border in Chad).

Darfur, despite the attention it has received from grassroots organizations, has apparently not been earth-shaking enough to attract the public’s eye. For instance, three weeks after an earthquake ravaged Haiti, the New York Times mentioned the words “Haiti” and “earthquake” in 210 articles, roughly 10 times per issue. Over the past seven years, however, the New York Times has only mentioned the words “Darfur” and “genocide” 716 times (Nexis.com). That means the genocide in Darfur received the New York Times’ attention about twice a week. (Nearly 100 of those references are thanks to columnist Nicholas Kristof). Typing just the word “Darfur” into Nexis yields less than 2,000 articles over that same time period, a measly mention once every 1.3 days.

Unlike Clooney’s “Hope for Haiti Now,” Darfur’s latest mainstream exposure was televised on the Jumbotron during a Duke-Georgetown college basketball game-a seventy-second spot for the “Darfur Dream Team,” which hopes to provide an education to the refugee children. But the video poorly portrays the problems in Darfur–kids are smiling for the camera and shooting baskets on a desert court. College basketball highlights and NBA stars provide most of the footage. Clooney’s benefit was able to capture hearts and wallets because it featured earnest entertainers, bloody limbs, and piles of rubble. Activists are not going to win over basketball fans for Darfur with smiles and jump shots. People need to see Darfur for what it is–a dangerously unstable region that has the potential of tumbling into a second genocide.

The night after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, the president answered questions proposed by YouTube users. The video that received the most votes came from the Enough Project, an organization pushing to end genocide. After recapping the crisis in Sudan, an Enough representative asked Obama via YouTube, “What will you do to galvanize the international community to insure that widespread violence does not occur in Sudan this year?”

Obama’s response mixed humanitarian rhetoric with political circling. He ended his reply by stating that his “hope is that we can broker agreements with all the parties involved to deal with what has been an enormous human tragedy in that region.”

The Enough Project, after hearing the president’s answer, wrote on their website that Obama’s first year in office, a time when 2,500 people have been killed in southern Sudan, has failed to make progress in that region.

Jerry Fowler, the president of Save Darfur, told me that he is “concerned with [the administration's] level of engagement.” When key activists met with Obama and his Special Envoy for Sudan, Major General Scott Gration, on March 30, 2009, it took the administration nearly seven months before they had readied plans.

The United Nations Security Council has also proven lackluster. They proposed an arms embargo, but have been delinquent in enforcing it. They’ve also suggested sanctioning key Sudanese officials, but according to Fowler, the council has only identified a few “marginal figures.”

This is no time for gradualism.

In April, Sudan is set to have their first significant election in twenty-four years. Free and fair elections, however, seem unlikely in the corrupt Sudanese political landscape. The residing president, Omar al-Bashir, is up for reelection, yet his credentials include an outstanding arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Last Wednesday, the ICC’s Appeals Chamber unanimously decided to have the Pre-Trial Chamber reconsider adding charges of genocide to al-Bashir’s indictment. Additionally, the government in Khartoum censors the press, detains innocent people, and represses political opposition. Not to mention, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement brokered between the government and a southern guerilla movement has been mostly ignored.

“The important thing is for the world community to scrutinize very closely the environment the election is happening in,” Fowler said during our recent phone conversation. Even though the violence in Darfur has shifted from systematic to sporadic, banditry, ethnic clashes, fighting within rebel groups, and military intimidation plague the region. According to the Carter Center’s December report, many Darfuris have not registered to vote, fearing the armed military presence at registration sites.

Fowler also believes that “Darfur cannot be addressed in isolation from the larger parts of Sudan.”

Last Tuesday, Admiral Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence addressed the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “[A] new mass killing or genocide is most likely to occur in southern Sudan,” he said.

The south’s 2011 referendum to seek independence from the northern part of the country would create a border across Sudan’s oil reserves. “While a renewed conflict could be limited to proxy fighting or skirmishes focused around individual oilfields, both sides’ arms purchases indicate their anticipation of more widespread conflict,” Blair warned. And if the South’s secession happens to be successful, Blair doubts the region will function as they struggle now “to provide basic services, curb rampant corruption, or curtail escalating tribal clashes… Some international observers have suggested the south will become a failed state unless the international community assumes a significant role in development, security, and governance,” he told the committee.

Maggie Fick, Enough’s policy researcher, based in the southern city of Juba, Sudan, wrote in an AOL News piece: “The international community as a whole deserves a poor grade for neglecting to hold up its end of the bargain and help Sudan prepare for these landmark decisions. The United States has its special envoy, but engagement at a higher diplomatic level, backed by a coalition of countries willing to impose consequences on those who undermine peace, is sorely needed.”

When Haiti’s capitol was reduced to rubble, we listened to the pleas of a desperate people and funneled money into the country. Ten missionaries even went as far as kidnapping children, claiming to do God’s work. Their lawless act is condemnable; but their anarchy illustrates a passion, and the international community needs to find that fervor and use it to help Sudan as the country nears a most important election. As Save Darfur’s website declares, “Building peace costs less-in lives and in dollars-than picking up the pieces after a humanitarian crisis.”

The Obama administration and Congress-split by its own bipartisan fault-line-along with the United Nations, must lead the international community and become engaged at a high level.

If you’re interested in learning more about the effort and crisis, and to see how you can get involved, check out Save Darfur, the Enough Project, and Genocide Intervention Network.

Photo by FutureAtlas.com