Future of Sudan's Darfur uncertain post-referendum

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Years before Sudan's south began casting votes for succession, the woes of Africa's largest country were defined by the ethnic bloodshed in the western Darfur region.

Now, international mediators and rights groups are calling for stronger efforts to settle the eight-year Darfur conflict, fearing that the expected breakaway of the south may push Khartoum's leaders to clamp down harder on dissent and place stricter limits on an international role in Darfur and other areas that remain under its direct control.

Human Rights Watch and other groups say violence was already increasing in the vast arid region in the lead-up to the southern referendum held …