more than 9,000 members of a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force were deployed to the region to address the fighting and humanitarian suffering . The force will eventually number 26,000 . Speaking on Tuesday , el-Bashir said that the fighting only affects 10 percent of the region . In the majority of Darfur , there is little to no conflict and people are living normal lives , he said . Citing Sudanese government statistics , el-Bashir said that less than 10,000 people have died in the conflict and less than 500,000 have been displaced . International figures , including United Nations ' data , put the death toll in Darfur at approximately 200,000 , with another 2.5 million people displaced by the violence since 2003 . The conflict started five years ago when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms , complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Sudanese government . Sudan 's Arab-dominated government is accused of responding by unleashing the tribal militias known as janjaweed , which have committed the worst atrocities against Darfur 's local communities . El-Bashir , however , rejected claims that the Darfur conflict is being fought along ethnic lines . E-mail to
DUBAI , United Arab Emirates -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir on Tuesday accused the international media of `` exaggerating '' the situation in Darfur to detract from atrocities in Iraq , the Palestinian territories and Somalia . Refugees from Darfur gather at a camp in Chad . Sudan 's president says the crisis in Darfur is a `` media fabrication . '' El-Bashir spoke at a news conference in Dubai following a three-day visit to the Persian Gulf emirate . He said the crisis in Sudan 's western Darfur region is a `` media fabrication . '' El-Bashir 's government has been blamed by the United Nations of supporting militias that conduct `` indiscriminate attacks '' on civilians in the Darfur region , including torture , rape , and killings . Rebels fighting the government-backed militias have also been accused by the U.N. of widespread human rights abuses . During Tuesday 's news conference , el-Bashir restated his position that foreign intervention in Darfur was an obstacle in achieving peace in the region . The Sudanese president has been outspoken in his opposition to allowing non-African forces in Darfur . At the start of this year ,