More Darfur info can be found at:

Info on the Genocide

Dafur, Sudan

Terms

Genocide - the systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, ethnic, racial, political, or religious group; The most well known example of genocide is Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.

Janjaweed – militia that the Sudanese government supports made up of fighters from Arab backgrounds; The Janjaweed have been committing mass genocide in Darfur since 2003 when the Darfur Conflict began.  

Refugee – one who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) – a rebel group involved in the Darfur Conflict that works with the SLA against the Janjaweed

Sudanese Liberation Army ( SLA ) – working with the JEM, they are a member of the National Democratic Alliance, working against the Janjaweed  

Darfur - a region in Sudan, Africa that has been ravaged by the Darfur Conflict, seeing thousands die

How the Conflict Began

Darfur is inhabited by two main groups of people:

    non- Arabic black people such as the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa; primarily farmers

    Arab tribes, collectively known as Baggara; nomadic herdsmen

Extreme quarrels over access to land and water resources have resulted from these differences in lifestyle.

Islamic law was declared in 1983, imposing an Islamic belief system upon a diverse population. The Christian South became infuriated at the decree, and tension increased between the Christian South and Muslim North. This began the Second Sudanese Civil War.

At the same time, the Non-Arab community accused the government of showing outright prejudice toward the Non-Arabs while favoring Arabs.

The SLA and the JEM (two rebel groups associated with the Non-Arab community; see Terms), feeling that their efforts for equal treatment had gone unnoticed, attacked government facilities in early 2003. The Sudanese government responded by amassing the Janjaweed, an Arab militia. They provided the Janjaweed militia with weapons, giving them free reign over military operations.

The Janjaweed have murdered millions and displaced even more, specifically targeting Non-Arabs.  Between March and October of 2004, the World Health Organization estimated 71,000 deaths due to starvation and disease because the Janjaweed had forced civilians into the dessert region of Darfur .

The Sudanese government-sponsored genocide has already claimed at least 400,000 lives, displaced 2.5 million people and left more than 3.5 million men, women and children struggling to survive amid violence and starvation. The U.S. estimates that 10,000 die each month from the conflict. Men continued to be murdered, women raped and forced along with their children into the desert to slowly die of disease, dehydration, and starvation.

Thanks to www.operationsudan.org and the Save Darfur Coalition.      

“Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter.

Since early 2003, Sudanese armed forces and Sudanese government-backed militia known as “Janjaweed” have been fighting two rebel groups in Darfur , the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The stated political aim of the rebels has been to compel the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment  

[definition: lacking the technology and capital to make efficient use of available resources]  

and the political marginalization

  [definition: to take or keep somebody or something away from the center of attention, influence, or power; arising from somebody’s voiced opposition to a government or from voiced support for policies and principles regarded by authorities as unacceptable] 

of the region.  In response, the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and the Janjaweed – largely composed of fighters of Arab nomadic background – have targeted civilian populations and ethnic groups from which the rebels primarily draw their support – the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

The Bush Administration has recognized these atrocities – carried out against civilians primarily by the government of Sudan and its allied Janjaweed militias – as genocide.  António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has described the situation in Sudan and Chad as “the largest and most complex humanitarian problem on the globe.”  The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias are responsible for the burning and destruction of hundreds of rural villages, the killing of tens of thousands of people, and rape and assault of thousands of women and girls.”

  - Save Dafur Coalition

Send mail to angelicaschwartz@strollforsudan.org with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: February 23, 2008