The Effects of the Darfur Conflict on The Neighboring Countries, the Horn of Africa region, and U.S. Interest

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).

The citizens of Darfur were doing nothing wrong, they were minding their own business. The government begs to differ. The government wanted to use the land for oil exploration. They didn’t ask the Darfuri people to use their land, they just took over. Men, women and children were slaughtered and raped because they didn’t give up the land. The government “undertake to prevent and punish” (Raphael Lemkin pg1) which is the people of Darfur was a where of what was going on. They didn’t move their stuff they just stayed and fought in what they believed in. I believe many people would have just grabbed their valuables and taken their family and went somewhere else, but they didn’t want to do that because their neighbors were not leaving.

The Darfur Genocide is the current mass slaughter and rape of civilians from South Sudan killing women and children in Sudan. The Genocide began in 2003 but the outbreak around the world in early 2004 and still continues today which is known as the first genocide in the 21 Century. There have been many responses toward the genocide such as United Nations and China but the conflict continues to be unresolved. This had caught attention from many countries around the world, including our country, the united Nation and China had different perspectives referring to Sudan conflict, however their initiatives had worsen the situation.

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

In recent times, the media has highlighted the genocide that has been occurring in Darfur, Sudan. Darfur, Sudan is a country roughly the size of the state of Texas (Darfur Scores, n.d.). Genocide is the systematic killing of an entire ethnic group of people from a national, ethnic, or religious group, or an attempt to do away with them all (Darfur Scores, n.d.). Beginning around 2003, according to Darfur Scores (n.d.), “the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the government-sponsored Janjaweed militia have used rape, displacement, organized starvation, threats against aid workers and mass murder. Violence, disease, and displacement continue to kill thousands of innocent Darfurians every month.”

2003 marked the beginning of the Darfur Genocide. It has consisted of some of the most appalling treatment and murder of the innocent citizens of Darfur. It also quickly became clear why the government never stepped in. A group known as the Janjaweed, which ironically enough translates to ‘devils on horseback,’ has been at the head of the genocide. They are armed and funded by the government. Their disturbing actions consist of destroy the people by burning villages, looting money, polluting water, and worst of all, the murdering, raping, and torturing of men, woman, and children. It continues there today.

After these two genocides, one may look at the past and ask, how could this death and destruction possibly happen again? The bad part is that it is happening again in the Darfur region of Sudan. This region is “about the size of Texas” (DarfurScores, par. 1) and “five thousand die every month”

The ongoing genocide in Darfur is in desperate need of help. As the first genocide of the 20th century it impacts us directly. The men, women and children of Darfur are being exposed to death, rape and even water contamination.The Janjaweed is the root of the destruction in Darfur has motivated economic power, political power and a plain simple rivalry over the non- Muslim and the non-Arab. The Janjaweed translates to devils on horseback they got there name for a reason they ride around horseback armed with assault rifles and intentions of destruction.

Genocide is defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group. “The ‘Darfur Genocide’ refers to the current mass slaughter and rape of men, women, and children in Western Sudan” (Mitchell Hamline School of Law). Not only are these atrocities happening, but the Darfurians are being force from their land and into refugee camps, mainly in the country Chad, but also other countries like Ethiopia or Kenya. Darfur genocide causes can be found both culturally and politically. The cultural and political causes come from the same source of that being an underdeveloped country with no effective government protecting the rights of the Darfurians. Darfurians were violently pushed around, physically and mentally, with the western world not stepping in to assist. Although eventually, both Britain and the United Nations came to the same conclusion that the atrocities occurring in Darfur were genocide and “one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises” (Thomson Reuters). Genocide occurred in Sudan in the Darfur region starting in 2003 and continues today. The long-standing divide between Arab herding tribes and the African farming tribes and the political opportunism arising from the environmental calamity led to the genocide in Sudan.

These awful armed men burn down villages of Darfur citizens. These awful men also raped multiple women. “A rape victim who was a teacher told Bashir: "They were shouting and screaming at us.” (Tran, Mark Pg. 2). “According to United to End Genocide, the conflict has claimed 300,000 lives...” (The Crisis in Darfur Pg. 2). The Janjaweed has even been polluting many of their water sources (Darfur Genocide Pg. 2). The Janjaweed has also produced a lengthy amount of people who have been displaced. The number of that many people is 2 million (Darfur Genocide Pg. 2). They have also have with no emotion destroyed the citizens of Darfur’s property. These emotionless men known as the Janjaweed gets supported by the Sudan government because of peace conflicts before the genocide. Which is terrible since Sudan claims they don’t even support the genocide. The definition of genocide is the deliberate extermination of a people or a nation. This is a deliberate mass killing of citizens in Darfur. This is a real

While still struggling to achieve peace with Sudan since its independence in 2011, South Sudan is now rife with inner-conflict. Rebel forces led by the former Vice-President Riek Machar want to overthrow the South Sudanese government, led by President Salva Kiir.

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