Thousands turned out to see Annan at the Iridimi Camp in Chad, 70km west of the Sudanese border.
"All we want is peace so we can return," said Saleh Hamid Moubarak, 57, who is living at the camp of flimsy shelters made from sticks and plastic sheets. "Our children were killed, our belongings looted, our women raped."
The US called on the UN to impose an arms embargo and travel ban on the Arab militias in a draft resolution submitted Wednesday to coincide with Powell's visit to Darfur.
The Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army, two rebel groups drawn from the region's African tribes, took up arms in February 2003 over what they called unjust treatment by the government in their struggle over land and resources with Arab countrymen in Darfur. A ceasefire was signed April 8, but both sides accuse each other of violations.
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