Washington - Updated satellite images of the troubled Darfur region of Sudan show an even broader destruction of villages than documented in previous pictures, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum said Thursday. The museum unveiled an updated version of its Google Earth initiative that allows computer users to view high-resolution satellite imagery of the region and compare before and after images.
The data show the destruction of more than 3,300 villages in the war-torn region, with most of the destruction occurring between 2003- 05.
The programme was started in 2007 and the update is based on new images released by the Humanitarian Information Unit of the US State Department earlier this month.
The glimpses of burnt huts and villages and of refugee tent cities can be seen through a special Crisis in Darfur overlay on Google Earth, the virtual world mapping programme through which users can glimpse details down to the car in their driveways.
An estimated 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur and more than 2 million people displaced.
