At the beginning of the 20th century, the world witnessed the brutal murder of a million Armenians by the Turkish government during the Armenian Genocide (1915-18). Nearly half a century later came the Holocaust (1938-45), during which 6 million Jews and other minorities were massacred in Germany by the Nazis. After this, the world's powerful nations vowed to "never again allow" another genocide and subsequently created the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Towards the end of the century, we once again witnessed the Cambodian genocide provoked by the Khmer Rouge (1975-79) and the Rwandan genocide (April 7-July 15, 1994) between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. In the 21st century, the world has demonstrated that it will never learn from its mistakes by allowing another genocide to occur in Sudan. In 2003, the United States and the rest of the world learned that fighting was taking place in an African region the size of France known as Darfur. Although most people were familiar with Somalia, Rwanda and South Africa, the Darfur region was unfamiliar to them. The United States, however, knew of Sudan's existence when in 1998 "it launched missile strikes on its capital, Khartoum, due to Sudan's alleged links to al-Qaeda terrorists" (Hayes 2011: 4 ). The genocide in Darfur was sparked when black African rebel groups protested against Sudan's Arab-dominated central government, insisting that the social, economic and political downgrading of their region be halted. The Sudanese government responded by supplying weapons to the Janjaweed, nomadic Arab outlaws on horseback, who carried out massacres of black African farmers. Many Darfurians died and the genocide continues today. With ...... middle of paper ......ence to overthrow the army. Five years later, in 1969, Colonel Ja'Far Muhammad Nimeiri carried out a successful coup and was elected president in 1983. Before Nimeiri came to power, the Addis Ababa Accords of 1972 were established and granted South Sudanese the right to govern themselves. . Upon ascending to the presidency, Nimeiri made two crucial decisions that would lead to his demise. The first is to order the abrogation of the Addis Aba agreements, the southerners can no longer govern themselves, which results in the creation of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM/A). The second is to introduce Shari law, which many Muslims opposed. In 1985, Nimeiri was deposed and Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi took power. Four years later, in 1989, a small military army led by Omar al-Bashir overthrew al-Mahdi again and in 1993, al-Bashir appointed himself president..