The Observer view on Sudan’s civil war: a humanitarian disaster we choose to ignore

Ethnic cleansing and war crimes in Darfur have left 25 million people in urgent need, yet the west's attention is elsewhere

Parents are killed in front of their children. As they cry for help, the children die too. Panicked people fleeing attacks become moving targets. Entire communities are set ablaze and destroyed. Dislocation, hunger and thirst follow, a prelude to famine and death.Abandoned, terrified, unprotected, unseen, the people despair.

This is not a description of Gaza today. It's Sudan, war-torn, desperate - and largely ignored. Upper estimates of the number of people killed there since a senseless civil war erupted just over one year ago reach 150,000. About 9 million residents, principally in the western Darfur region, have been displaced. Aidagencies say 25 million people are in need of urgent assistance. The future cohesion of a country already cleaved by the 2011 secession of South Sudan and conscious of next-door Libya's disintegration is at stake.