His village in Shoba, western Sudan, was burnt to the ground.

Until this spring, probably few Westerners had ever heard of the remote region in western Sudan.

The western Sudan had a mixture of peasant agriculture and nomadism.

Many childhoods have come to a screeching halt in western Sudan during the recent bout of fighting.

In 1853, the expedition was in the western Sudan.

Access for aid groups has been a contentious issue since a rebellion broke out in western Sudan in early 2003.

He had been selected by the British government to open up commercial relations with the states of the central and western Sudan.

Moreover, famine threatened vast areas of southern and western Sudan.

In the early 1980s western Sudan suffered several droughts and crop failures.

But the men come from agricultural families that were apparently swept up in the violence that has plagued western Sudan for nearly two years.