Some of the most unspeakable horrors of recent times have occurred in places whose names have been soiled in infamy. Places such as Rwanda. And Bosnia. And Somalia. Mohamed Yahya is doing his best to have the Darfur region of Sudan added to that list. Yahya, a Darfur native, has experienced firsthand the horrors occurring in Sudan. Since 2003, genocide there has wiped out up to 400,000 people, including, Yahya fears, his entire family, with whom he has not communicated in years.

Photo by Will Yurman, Democrat & Chronicle

Yahya brought his message Thursday night to Temple B'rith Kodesh, where an interfaith rally attracted about 1,300 people.

The crowd was the largest Yahya said he has encountered since he began touring the United States three years ago.

"I feel that I am not alone," he said. "My innocent people in Darfur are not alone."

Problems in Sudan have been ongoing for decades, but the situation appears to be getting worse quickly.

Sudan was embroiled in civil war for more than 20 years between the northern Arab and Muslim government and rebels from the largely Christian and animist south. It was a complex fight for power and resources among groups divided by race, culture, religion and language.

In 1993, Yahya's village was among the first attacked by the Sudanese government's Arab militia raiders. Yahya was studying in Cairo at the time; he learned much of his family had been killed or raped.

In 2003, during the civil war, some farming villages in Darfur rebelled against the Sudanese government. The government is accused of responding with militias that have gone from village to village, killing and raping. The U.S. government has labeled it a genocide.

"All their crops were totally destroyed," Yahya said. "All their farms were totally destroyed. Five-year-old girls were assaulted in mid-day. This is what is going on right now."

At least 25 groups — including heavy hitters such as the local Catholic diocese and the Jewish Community Federation of Greater Rochester — signed on to sponsor Thursday's rally. The Rev. George Tyger of the First Universalist Church of Rochester said each person could make a difference. "All of us have that obligation to speak out when we see injustice," Tyger said. "Each of us must do the 'something' we can do ... because doing what is right is our moral obligation." Participants are collecting cards that will be presented to President Bush, urging intervention to help the people of Darfur. Those cards, many collected at Thursday's rally, will be taken to a rally Sunday in Washington, D.C., and given to the president.

Students singing for Darfur at B'rth Temple

For Yahya, any help cannot come soon enough. The world has heard snippets of information about genocide for years but thus far turned a deaf ear, he said.

"No one has done anything about it," he said. "And now, it's 2006."

The United Nations in 2004 labeled Darfur the world's worst humanitarian crisis. More than 3 million people are in need of humanitarian help and 210,000 of those are in urgent need of food.

Children from this area gathered in song to conclude Thursday's rally. Tyger recited a mantra heard too often: "Never again, never again."