History of the Conflict In Sudan and the Role of the United Nations

According to the conflict theory of dependency, Sudan was taken advantage of, then eventually left on its own. One

The Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice Equality Movement took arms against the Sudanese government, which was later named “The War in Darfur”. Which sparked the anger of the government and sent their military to begin murdering many villages, that were non Arabs. In many accounts reported about 2 million were killed over 2 decades.Scarce resources played a huge role in the mass killings of Sudanese (non arab).

According to Amnesty International (2012), “throughout Sudan, the government routinely represses human rights defenders, political opponents, and ordinary civilians subjecting many to torture and other forms of ill-treatment.” Since the Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003, systematic human rights abuses have occurred. These abuses include killing, torture, rape, looting and destroying property. All parties have been involved, but these abuses have mostly been committed by the Sudanese government and government-backed Janjawid militia. These attacks have led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur, with an estimated two million internally displaced people and another 250,000 refugees

The Darfur crisis was a horrific event because of the savage treatment of civilians that led to an immense number of civilian casualties. As of today, over four hundred and eighty thousand people have been killed, and over two point eight million people are displaced. (World Without Genocide, Worldwithoutgenocide.org). Women and children were forced to endure a systematic program of sexual assault, torture, and murder. The central government of Sudan, working largely through nomadic Arab militias, humiliates women, and tears apart families and shreds the social fabric of communities through rape. (Smart Library on Globalization, clg.portalxm.com). It is clear from these sources that the innocent civilian deaths tore apart families. After villages are attacked parents and children have had to run away from the

Darfur is the western region of the African country of Sudan. Currently, the people of Darfur have been continually attacked by the Sudanese army and by proxy-militia controlled by the Sudanese government. Families are being uprooted and starved, children tormented and murdered by the thousands and women raped without punishment. Innocent civilians in Darfur continue to be victims of unthinkable brutality. Many people have become homeless and seek protection in refugee camps in Chad. Yet despite its outward appearance, Darfur has a vast ethnic diversity and a complex, ancient system of resolving conflict. Genocide has occurred in several places around the world, but in Darfur there are certain reasons why it

The Sudan is home to two civil wars taking place dating back hundreds of years. “The older of the two, pitting the Muslim revels from the south, has claimed 2m lives in the past two decades, and spurred 4m people to abandon their homes.”(Economist 11) Although the two sides in this old war are close to a peace resolution, a new insurgence has begun in the region pitting “Arabs” against the “black Africans”, in an effort to attract peace concessions from the Sudanese government just as the older rebels did years before. An uprising by rebel groups against government targets sparked this new war because they felt neglected by the Sudanese government. But the response of the government to the new revolt falls extremely short of peace concessions, and instead perpetuates an environment of violence, torture and depression. The government has given its own militia, the janjaweed, free reign to pillage, rape and kill black civilians in a futile attempt to squelch the revolt. This can be see as an “ethnic cleansing” in which the government feels that the killings of blacks will hopefully rid the country of the rebels given that the Darfur rebels are mostly black Africans. Thus, the Sudanese

Ever since the start of the civil war (December 2013) in South Sudan, tensions have been running high between two opposing groups. Those who support the President, Salva Kiir, and those who support his fired deputy, Rick Machar. This conflict has caused food shortages and disease for many people. The one thing the parties have in common is the brutal violence especially towards women. According to the article,

Sudan has had internal problems for many years. The country negatively affected itself from within. No outer force caused the issues at hand. Sudan experiences their first civil war in 1956. The issue came from economic, political, and social domination of largely non-Muslim and non-Arab southern Sudanese. The war lasted for about sixteen years and finally concluded in 1972. Unfortunately the violence

Political Cause. Politically, Darfur genocide is rooted in the government’s role of funding, “Janjaweed or devils on horseback,” who destroyed the Darfurians by “burning villages, looting

The second civil war started in 1983 because of longstanding issues uplifted by then President Jaafar Nimeiri's choice to implement Sharia law. Arrangements between the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, or SPLM/An of southern Sudan occurred in 1988 and 1989, however were deserted when General Omar al-Bashir took power in the 1989 through military coup. The Fighting over resources, southern self-determination, and the role of religion in the state raged between the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A for over two decades. The war left two and a half million people dead and four million people displaced. (Enoughproject.org)

The southern forces backed indirectly by the Soviet Union through Ethiopia reorganized into the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army and rose up against the North. At this point in the civil unrest, the war took on a religious aspect, fueled by Nimeiry‘s implementation of the Sharia, which is Islamic law. In 1986 a coup forced Nimeiry out of power and he was replaced by a coalition of northern political parties. On 1989 a northern coalition was overthrown by General Omar al-Bashir and Hasan al-Tarabi, a fundamentalist leader of the National Islamic Front. Sudan was turned into an Islamic dictatorship outlawing all other political parties except the National Islamic

The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 250,000 IDP’s are displaced because of the conflict in South Sudan. Lizabeth Paulat, a member of Truthout, a think tank, writes that the violence is directly causing a potentially massive famine within the region. “This threat of starvation is not occurring because of a natural scarcity, or even a political attempt to starve out opponents,” says Paulat, “rather, this is an issue of South Sudan’s internal refugees, forced to flee their homes to escape violence.” With such a high volume of IDP’s and a projected record breaking famine, the international community must intervene to assist President Kiir and the South Sudanese Government.

From 1972 onwards, the government “usually ran Darfur through officials brought in from other parts of Sudan, mainly from Khartoum” (Darfur: Origins). What Britain did basically doomed Non-Arab Darfur to “a future as an underdeveloped colony of Sudan’s Arab-speaking Nile Valley heartland” (Darfur: Origins).

The origin of the war between these two regions goes back to the 1950s when the country, which was previously two separate nations, was made one after World War II by the west. Shortly after this union, Sudan was emancipated from England. 1983 marks the beginning of the violent relations between the North and South Sudan. The initiation of this conflict was brought forth by the Islamic Sudanese of the North, invading with military force the Southern Sudanese Christians . From 1983, it is estimated that at least two million people have been killed in the violent duration of this genocide, most of whom are of the Christian faith and lead non-violent civilian lives. Attention on human trafficking was brought into the international community’s scope with close proximity to the beginning of the violence as two professors from the University of Khartoum shed light on the subject. Ushari Ahmad Mahumud and Suleyman Ali Baldo learned about the genocide and enslavement being practiced on the Dinka people, a tribal group in the southern Sudan, and upon this discovery they dicided to investigate it further. What they found was that raiders from the north were killing the Southern Christian men and kidnapping the women and children to be sold into slavery. The most disturbing part of this discovery was the newfound knowledge that this had been going on for over two years. Professors Mahumud and Baldo

Hamed Alneel Mohamed Emam mentioned that he supported the unity of Sudan because; Sudan is one country, one nation and had a common interest. He believed that the culture of Sudan could not tolerate amputation and unity within diversity and democracy is better for the Sudan future. He added, if the people of the south keen for their plans, they can enjoy ruling the south (through federalism). But if corruption protected by tribalism is habitude of the south then, is better for the all to work for the unity of Sudan.