A senior United Nations official says more than 16 months of war in Sudan has killed more than 20,000 people, a grim figure amid a devastating conflict that wrecked the northeastern African country

The country’s brutal civil war has led to the killing, rape and torture of civilians, including children, as it threatens to destabilize neighboring countries.

Sudan's military-led government has rejected a call by a UN fact-finding mission for the deployment of an international force to protect civilians from the country’s ongoing civil war. Sudan’s warring parties had committed "harrowing" human rights violations against civilians,

Sudan’s army-led government rejected a proposal by a United Nations fact-finding mission for an independent peacekeeping force in the North African country that’s being torn apart by a 17-month civil war.

Shelling killed at least 21 people at a market in southeast Sudan Sunday, a day after the country's rulers rejected a call by UN experts for an independent force to