Am Nabak is a fine place for camels. It is rocky and dry, and getting drier. The water table can't support the current population of a few camels and around 17,000 refugees from the war in Darfur, so water is brought in overland by truck. The camp is situated scant 25 kilometers from the Darfur border.  This is too close to the war zone by United Nations standards; it was only supposed to be a transit camp through which refugees passed on their way to more permanent and secure camps. But the refugees have settled in at Am Nabak and, despite the urging of the UN Refugee Agency, prefer to remain close to the border. 

I find it kind of shocking that there is more attention to the poker tournaments I participate in than in the tragedy ongoing in Darfur. Since 2003, nearly 2.5 million people have been forced out of their homes, living in makeshift huts in large, sprawling camps in this western region of Sudan. Up to 400,000 people have been killed according to some estimates.

A few years ago, Don Cheadle and I were having lunch and started talking about the crisis in Darfur. He had just released his book "Not on Our Watch" and was actively campaigning for more attention and meaningful action on Darfur. I felt that what was happening in Darfur was so horrible, and just said, "Nobody knows what’s going on in this part of the world. We should do a poker event for them." At the time I thought it would raise around $25,000 or $50,000. This small idea turned into Ante Up for Africa -- a hugely successful celebrity-studded series of charity poker events that has raised $2.5 million since July 2007.

On Wednesday, February 11, Save Darfur hosted a discussion on "Violence Against Women and the Darfur Genocide." While I was all too familiar with the systematic murder of civilians in the western part of Sudan since 2003, and well aware of the latest buzz surrounding the warrant issued for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s arrest, I was admittedly unaware of the vast use of rape as a weapon of war by the government-backed Janjaweed, especially in the early years of the war. Unfortunately, too many people continue to share my previous ignorance.

Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, knows first hand that peacemaking can be dangerous and difficult.  He dedicated To End A War, his book on the negotiations that ended the war in the Balkans 15 years ago, to three colleagues who died in the early stages of that effort.

In announcing the appointment last week, President Obama said:  “There is no answer in Afghanistan that does not confront the Al Qaida and Taliban bases along the border, and there will be no lasting peace unless we expand spheres of opportunity for the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan.”