War in Darfur facts for kids
- Further information: Darfur genocide
Quick facts for kids War in Darfur |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Sudanese Civil Wars | ||||||||
 Military situation in Sudan on 6 June 2016. (Darfur on the far left) Under control of the Sudanese Government and allies Under control of the Sudan Revolutionary Front and allies Under control of the Sudanese Awakening Revolutionary Council For a more detailed map of the current military situation in Sudan, see here. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| Belligerents | ||||||||
|
Supported by:  Uganda (until 2015) |
 Libya (since 2011) China Iran (until 2016) Russia Belarus Syria (2000s, alleged) |
  UNAMID (2007–2020) |
||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
|
|
  Mohammed Nour Abdelkerim |
Frank Mushyo Kamanzi |
||||||
| Units involved | ||||||||
|
|
|
No specific units | ||||||
| Strength | ||||||||
|
SRF: 60,000
|
SAF: 109,300
|
UNAMID: 15,845 soldiers and 3,403 police officers |
||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | 235 killed as of 31 August 2016 | ||||||
|
Total killed: Total displaced: 450,000 (Sudanese government estimate) |
||||||||
The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, was a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting against the government of Sudan, which they accused of oppressing Darfur's non-Arab population. The government responded to attacks by carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur's non-Arabs. This resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the indictment of Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
Origins of the conflict
Darfur, Arabic for "the home of the Fur", was not a traditional part of the states organized along the upper Nile valley but instead organized as an independent sultanate in the 14th century. Owing to the migration of the Banu Hilal tribe in the 11th century AD, the peoples of the Nile valley became heavily Arabicized while the hinterlands remained closer to native Sudanese cultures. It was first annexed to Egyptian Sudan in 1875 and then surrendered by its governor Slatin Pasha to the Mahdist State in 1883. Following the Anglo-Egyptian victory in the Mahdist War, Sultan Ali Dinar was reinstated as a British client before being deposed by a 1916 expedition after he began supporting the Ottoman Empire amid the First World War. Subsequently, Darfur remained a part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the independent Republic of the Sudan.
There are several different explanations for the origins of the conflict that started in 2003. One explanation involves the land disputes between semi-nomadic livestock herders and those who practice sedentary agriculture. Water access has also been identified as a major source of the conflict. The Darfur crisis is also related to the First and Second Sudanese Civil Wars, between the Arab-dominated government and the Christian and animist black southerners. Yet another origin is conflict between the Islamist, Khartoum-based national government and two rebel groups based in Darfur: the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement.
Overview
One side of the conflict is mainly composed of the Sudanese military, police, and the Janjaweed, a Sudanese militia group whose members are mostly recruited among Arabized indigenous Africans and a small number of Bedouin of the northern Rizeigat; the majority of other Arab groups in Darfur remained uninvolved. The other side is made up of rebel groups, notably the SLM/A and the JEM, recruited primarily from the non-Arab Muslim Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit ethnic groups. The African Union and the United Nations also have a joint peacekeeping mission in the region, named UNAMID. Although the Sudanese government publicly denies that it supported the Janjaweed, evidence supports claims that it provided financial assistance and weapons and coordinated joint attacks, many against civilians. Estimates of the number of human casualties range up to several hundred thousand dead, from either combat or starvation and disease. Mass displacements and coercive migrations forced millions into refugee camps or across the border, creating a humanitarian crisis. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell described the situation as a genocide or acts of genocide.
The Sudanese government and the JEM signed a ceasefire agreement in February 2010, with a tentative agreement to pursue peace. The JEM has the most to gain from the talks and could see semi-autonomy much like South Sudan. However, talks were disrupted by accusations that the Sudanese army launched raids and air strikes against a village, violating the Tolu agreement. The JEM, the largest rebel group in Darfur, vowed to boycott negotiations.
The August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, signed by military and civilian representatives during the Sudanese Revolution, requires that a peace process leading to a peace agreement be made in Darfur and other regions of armed conflict in Sudan within the first six months of the 39-month transition period to democratic civilian government.
A comprehensive peace agreement was signed on 31 August 2020 between the Sudanese authorities and several rebel factions to end armed hostilities.
| List of abbreviations used in this article AU: African Union |
See also
- Banu Hilal
- Bibliography of the Darfur conflict
- Breidjing Camp
- Chadian Civil War (2005–10)
- Command responsibility
- Darfur genocide
- First Sudanese Civil War
- History of Darfur
- History of Sudan
- Human rights in Sudan
- Genocides in history
- Genocide of indigenous peoples
- List of civil wars
- List of conflicts in Africa
- List of ethnic cleansing campaigns
- List of famines
- List of ongoing armed conflicts
- List of wars 2003–present
- Lost Boys of Sudan
- Second Sudanese Civil War
- Slavery in Sudan
- Team Darfur
