On Sunday, Sept. 17, 45 Binghamton University students took a bus to New York City’s Central Park to participate in a rally against genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The conflict, which began in 2003 between a militia group called Janjaweed and the Baggara tribes of the region, has claimed the lives of about 400,000 people from both violence and starvation, according to estimates by the Coalition for International Justice. And Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, said last week that 1.9 million people have been displaced by the conflict.

While the American, French, British and German governments have declared the conflict to be a genocide, the U.N. has not.

The Associated Press reported that more than 20,000 participants attended the rally in New York City, which coincided with the opening of the United Nation’s 61st General Assembly.

Similar events were held in 30 other cities worldwide. Participants wore blue hats to symbolize their desire for U.N. peacekeeping troops in Darfur.

“I wanted to feel like I was making an impact,” said Leah Campos, 20, a BU political science major who attended. “You may think that one person going doesn’t make a difference, but just like voting, if one person decides their vote isn’t worth anything, [and] then a bunch of other people decide that, then no one shows up.”

Jackie Farber, a BU Hillel staffer who organized the Binghamton mission, said she was excited that many freshmen attended.

Students hope that the rally will have an effect on the region — a peace agreement was signed after a similar rally in Washington, D.C., on April 30.

Nava Gropper, an English major who attended the rally, said that the Darfur genocide is under publicized compared with other issues, like the Iraq war. “It’s not even covered in the news, and if it is, it’s farther into the paper,” said Gropper.

Fatema Haroun, from the Darfur Alert Coalition, was one of the most well-recieved speakers of the event. She spoke emotionally to the crowd and thanked participants for joining in.

“On behalf of the brutalized, raped, tortured, humiliated, intimidated Darfurian women; on behalf of the dying children in Darfur; the elderly, and the beheaded men, the slaughtered men, I’m here to send my warmest gratitude to the international community, to the American people, to all the groups who are supporting us,” she said.

Other speakers included former United States Secretary of State Madeline Albreit and actress Mira Sorvino. Performances included O.A.R., Big & Rich, Suzanne Vega and Citizen Cope.