The battered nation of Sudan is crumbling.

First, there was a 20-year civil war in the southern part of the African nation.

In the past two years, brutality in the Darfur region has left up to 200,000 dead and 2 million displaced to crowded, tattered refugee camps. Now, 3 million are starving and drought threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of others.

Sudan, said United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, is "hell on earth."

Today, Pittsburghers will get a chance to understand the complexities of Sudan a little better when Abdel Bagi Kabeir, a deputy ambassador for the northeastern African nation, comes to town. He will speak at 3 p.m. in Room 120 of the University of Pittsburgh's David Lawrence Hall, and some local Sudan natives are expected to protest.

His visit is organized by the University of Pittsburgh's Muslim Students Association and the Sankore' Institute, a North Side group that collects and digitizes rare Islamic manuscripts.

Now in his mid-40s, Kabeir, who once was a rebel, is expected to outline the government's intervention in the Darfur crisis.

Days ago, news of his visit caused a storm among peace organizers, who immediately formed a coalition to protest his views, which they say justify government-sponsored massacre.

Pittsburgh's Lost Boys, survivors of Sudan's refugee camps, are scheduled to be part of the protest. The refugees claim they continue to lose family members to violence by the Sudanese government.

Organizers worry the protest will drown out the ambassador's message and rob people of the chance to get a fuller understanding of the Darfur conflict.

The growing crisis is rooted in the clashes of some 90 ethnic groups that have occupied the sprawling land of Sudan for centuries.

Many settled there -- from Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso -- because it was a popular route to hajj, the pilgrimage all able-bodied Muslims are required to make to Saudi Arabia.

The conflicts intensified when the country gained independence from Great Britain in 1956. They pitted northerners against southerners and herdsmen against farmers.

The conflicts are further complicated because most people involved are so similar: They are black, speak Arabic and follow Islam. Over time, disputes over customs, languages and regions broadened to include feuds over oil, land and politics.

Not since the Rwanda genocide of 1994 has the world seen such slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement.

In September, former Secretary of State Colin Powell termed the Darfur crisis a "genocide" and refugees in the United States and peace organizers say that President Bush must respond. But in February, a United Nations report said while there was evidence of "crimes against humanity," it stopped short of calling the crisis a genocide, or an attempt to systematically destroy a nation or ethnic group.

For 10 years beginning in the 1980s, Muhammad Shareef, a leader at Sankore' Institute, studied in Sudan. He has sons who still live there. He worries the western media don't understand the intricacies of the tribal conflicts and are too quick to blame the problem on "marauding Arabs." He believes this negatively depicts Arabs, is designed to destroy Islamic growth in the area and doesn't explain the battles that have Muslim fighting Muslim.

Shareef, 45, also believes that reports that the government is supporting a group of raiders called the Janjaweed, or devils on horseback, should be investigated more.

There are claims that the Janjaweed have been heavily armed by officials in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, and dispatched to attack rebel forces and farmers.

"That is widely reported," said Shareef, "but it is not the whole story. The bureaucracy in Sudan is weak and the government has no control over such situations."

Peter Okema, 27, a Uganda native and one of the protest organizers, does not think the government should get off so easily. If the country's leadership is so weak, said Okema, it has no purpose in serving the country.

The whole intention is to give a good image to bad government, said Okema, a recent Pitt graduate who also asserted that Khartoum has a horrible record on human rights. Kabeir's visit, he said, "will be used to misinform people."

According to human rights organizations, civilians in the region continue to die at a rate of 15,000 a month.

Khartoum has recently called for the naturalization of all immigrants as a move to unify the nation.

There are other steps toward peace. Violence is down from a year ago. Rebels agreed to a recent cease-fire. While banditry is on the rise, there is news that attacks by the Janjaweed have slowed.

An agreement to end the civil war in the south is giving hope that the conflict in Darfur can be quelled as well. "We have to give peace a chance," said Shareef. "Let the people hear what [Kabeir] has to say."