Google Maps to document Darfur crisis

Google has added a multimedia documentation of the Darfur crisis to its Google Earth mapping application.

The new content, titled "Crisis in Darfur," will be provided to Google by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It will be presented as a "layer" that users will be able to toggle on and off.

The new layer combines Google's aerial images with photos and data that the Museum has gathered from government reports, independent organisations, and photographers.

The aim of the project is to better educate users on the current conflict in Darfur, a region in the western part of Sudan. The BBC estimated that the conflict has resulted in over 200,000 deaths, as well as the displacement of roughly two million people. Though the United Nations has yet to declare the conflict a genocide, watchdog groups have accused the Sudanese government of supporting massive ethnic cleansing campaigns by militia groups.

The Darfur data will be the first in a series of features planned by Google and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The project will eventually be updated to include data on the Holocaust and other genocides around the world.

Because Google Earth is a self-updating application, the new data is currently available to all users as a "global awareness layer" within Google Earth.