Google has begun using its Google Earth satellite mapping service to draw attention to the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region.

 

The project, inaugurated on Tuesday, means that when Google Earth users scroll over maps of the region, they are presented with statistics on the number of villages destroyed and people displaced.

In addition, Google Earth has superimposed icons of flames onto the map to represent destroyed villages and tents to represent refugee camps.

 

The project, run in conjunction with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, also provides high resolution images of destroyed villages and houses.

 

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The project's organisers says that they hope the initiative will help draw attention to obscure conflicts in little known parts of the world.

 

"When it comes to responding to genocide, the world's record is terrible. We hope this important initiative with Google will make it that much harder for the world to ignore those who need us the most," Sara Bloomfield, the director of the Holocaust Museum, said in a statement.

 

"At Google, we believe technology can be a catalyst for education and action," Elliot Schrage, Google's vice president, said in a statement.

 

The United Nations estimates that more than 200,000 people have been killed in the Darfur region in fighting between the government-backed forces and local people.

 

More than 2.5 million people are also believed to have been displaced in the violence.