Civil war in Darfur

The civil war in Darfur is an armed conflict which touches since 2003 the area of the Darfur located at the west of the Sudan. The origins of the conflict are old go back to the coup d'etat of 1989.

The conflict of Darfur caused:

Approximately: 200000 died according to the Express train , the Sudanese government evoking the number of: 10000
1,85 million moved and
: 230000 refugees with the Chad, mainly in the east of the country.

Causes

The reasons of the conflict are multiple and dependant between them:

a climatic and environmental origin: a phenomenon of Dryness in all the the Sahel, which develops and of Désertification which started since the Années 1970.
a demographic explosion, the population doubled in 20 years.
a competition for space.
Of the different Ethnos group S, with the overlapping distributions.

The Darfur is an area of the the Sahel which is in the west of the Sudan: 5 to 6,1 million people live there; the area has a very low level of development: only one third of the girls (for 44,5% of the boys) goes to the elementary school.

The discovery of the Pétrole in this area also caused covetousnesses. If the conflict were largely described in ethnic terms, and probably policies, it is also about a fight for the oil resources located at the south and the west.

Three principal tribes are installed in Darfur: the Four S, which gave their name to the Darfur, who means in Arab the house of Furnace , the Masalit S and the Zaghawa S. Until now, the passage of Arab camel drivers in the south was remained without incidents.

Involved forces

The involved forces are:

On the one hand the Janjawid, a Arab Militia indicated like recruited among the tribes Abbala and supported by the government Sudan board. The government denies to have provided a help to the rebels. According to remarks of Amnesty International collected not Nouvel Obs, the China would bring to the Sudanese government weapons and military apparatuses. The Russia would also provide military material, all that in spite of a Embargo of UNO.

And in addition, rebellious forces: Army of release of Sudan (SLA) and Movement for justice and the equality (JEM). The SLA would have the support of the popular Armée with release of Sudan (called SPLM and supported by the the United States). Based to the South of Sudan, this movement is opposed to the central government based in north.

forces of interposition: approximately of: 7000 soldiers of the African Union (UA) are deployed in the area within the framework of the mission FRIENDLY to protect the civilians. They are ineffective. The government of Khartoum is long in authorizing the sending of blue helmets envisaged by UNO, to reinforce the mission of the African Union, of the blue helmets of the mission WASHOUT are already present at the South Sudan.

Seventy-nine ONG still operates in this area.

According to the writer-journalist F. William Engdahl, the conflict would be also due to a competition between the China and the the United States for the control of the oil resources of Sudan, which would explain as well the sales of weapons of China in Sudan as the support of the United States for the rebels SLA, even the qualification of Génocide that they want to give to the conflict. Indeed with the close Chad, a Pipeline share towards the Atlantic and of the oil fields is already exploited there by the american company Chevron. If the forces armed with release of Sudan take the control of the oil resources in Darfur, the concessions should not be granted to the Chinese any more. One of the rebellious main leaders was received by US president Bush in July 2006.

An ethnic conflict?

The conflict is presented like opponent:

Arab tribes “” from which result the Janjawid S.
the S-African tribes “black” not Arabic-speaking people.

See the computer graphics of the '' Monde '' on the division of the grounds in Darfur enters the ethnos groups.

However, Marc Lavergne, specialist in the Sudan to CNRS, considers that the conflict would not be racial, but that the main issue of this country comes from poor governments which followed one another since independence. These even which were unaware of the peripheral provinces of the capital, of which Darfur, and who instrumentalisent today militiamans at economic ends.

In addition, according to Gerard Plum tree, researcher at CNRS and specialist in the East Africa, questioned by the diplomatic World, the cause of the conflict in Darfur is “racioculturelle”. According to this author, “the Arabs are minority in Sudan. And the islamist ones are only the ultimate historical incarnation of their domination ethnorégionale. However peace between North and the South is surbedding itself quickly. It is thus necessary to handle the North-South frontier layout which places the greatest part of oil at the South (they is in hand), to prepare with the possible resumption of the hostilities (weapons are bought), to anchor solids international alliances (China is acquired and Iran in the course of seduction) and to preserve the control of the territory by creating a medical cord ethnorégional: the mounts Spree in Kordofan and Darfur would form part of it. However if the tribes sprees were crushed militarily between 1992 and 2002, Darfur appears much more threatening. Hiérarques Arabic of Khartoum wants to avoid at all costs a breach by which the Blacks of the West would be combined tomorrow with a South independent négro-African… and tanker! ” .

Human and medical consequences

The civil populations, children including, undergo the attacks of Janjawid S. UNO speaks about Crime against humanity, the the United States speak about Génocide.

The calculation of the victims

According to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs French: “ probably 300.000 dead ” (September 2006)
According to UNO, more than 200.000 people “was killed” (May 2007)
Doctors without borders estimates that there were 131.000 deaths between 2003 and June 2005, including three quarter of diseases and famine. The conflict would have “ lowered intensity ”, with currently 200 died per month.

In the month of July 2004, the Congress of the United States vote unanimously a resolution to qualify Genocide the civil war in Darfur. Referring to an investigation made during the summer 2004 in nineteen refugee camps Sudanese to the Chad, the American Secretary of State Colin Powell qualifies the events of the Darfur of genocide in September 2004. The rebels are satisfied with this recognition and claim a direct intervention of the international community.

Moved populations

The destruction, the shaved villages, the burned ground policy (attacks and flight of the cattle, burnt fields) forces the populations to leave.

12 camps of Taken refuge S with the Chad
Of tens of moved camps of

Géreida (128 000 moved),
Zalingeï (95 000 moved),
Kalma (91 000 moved),
El-Geneïna

With Riyadh (20 000 moved), the refugees are primarily women and children. The ONG, the World food program and the Office of the High Commission of the United Nations for the refugees complain about the lack of safety which obstructs their work. Several Sudanese humane workers would have been removed.

Several militiamans Janjawid S were condemned by local justice to the capital punishment.

International attitude

The former chief of the guerilla of the South of Sudan John Garang found that the attitude of the international community missed will and was sometimes ambiguous.

Europe

Suspected a long time of kindness towards Sudan, the France is today in larval conflict with the government of Khartoum, because of the military aid which it brings to the governments of Chad and Central Africa, in hillock with the rebellious incursions of forces whose bases of fold are in Sudanese territory.

Tony Blair stated to be against any military intervention in Darfur. But it supports the commercial embargo set up by the United States.

The June 25th 2007, the new elected president of the French Republic Nicolas Sarkozy organizes in Paris an International Conference on Darfur joining together the great powers and the international organizations concerned. Preliminary speech of NR. Sarkozy to the meeting of the group of contact.

The United States

The United States issued an embargo on the sale of weapons in Sudan and against certain East-African oil companies. George W. Bush wishes to make pass to the Safety advice of the United Nations a resolution to obtain multilateral measurements.

China

The China has sold many weapons in Sudan for a few years and buys 65% of the Sudanese oil production. According to the Canadian deputy Maurice Vellacott, “ the majority of the weapons used to kill, violate, plunder and the remainder are manufactured in Sudan in Chinese factories ”. Vellacott criticizes also the repeated uses of the right to veto whose Popular republic of China made use concerning of the resolutions of the Safety advice of the United Nations forcing Sudan to stop the exactions of the militia djandjawids in Darfur. A report/ratio of Amnesty International shows Beijing to have sent more than two hundred Chinese military trucks to Sudan in August 2005.

African countries

The African Union engages actively in the resolution of the conflict of Darfur. It profits in particular from the support of NATO, the European Union, the the United States and the Canada. To date close to: 7,000 African soldiers were deployed on the ground. It is the first maintenance mission of the peace managed by a African institution. In spite of all the furnished efforts, the mission misses financial resources. If the insufficiency is not filled, the success of this true African exploit could be put at evil about it.

ONG

Some ONG present at Darfur criticize the lack of interest of UNO and the European Union. The international diplomats follow one another to ask Omar to el-Béchir to help the refugees. Collectives of citizens were created in several Western countries to alert the opinion on the urgency of this situation, of which they recall the analogies with the international resignation during the Génocide to Rwanda.

The pressure of ONG Frenchwomen, of which much is gathered by CRID in its countryside “planetary State of emergency”, led several candidates to the presidential Frenchwomen of 2007 to mention this problem. Two collectives in France were constituted specifically on Darfur:

“Collective Darfur Urgency”;
“Save Darfur”.

Artists

During 2005, the American actor George Clooney was mobilized for Darfur. Under its impulse, a special episode of the series Urgences was diffused the May 4th 2006 by NBC to sensitize the American opinion with the conflict. The diffusion of this forty minutes episode quadrupled in one evening the time of antenna devoted in 2006 by the three large evening papers of the American national chains NBC, ABC and CBS.

Criticisms on the international mobilization

Gabriel Trujillo, person in charge assistant of the programs of Doctors without borders in the Darfur west, denounced the risks of an military intervention to the Sudan and fears that “ the cause of Darfur is finally only one development in the presidential campaign ”. The president of MSF also gave an opinion in a platform published in the newspaper Libération .

Médecins of the World also criticized the step of the collective Urgence Darfur.

Chronology of the principal events

In 1972, South-Sudan, animist and Christian, obtains a statute of autonomy at the conclusion of a first war which would have made approximately five hundred and thousand died in seventeen years.

In 1983, South-Sudan revolts again following the introduction of the Charia and the removal of the statute of autonomy. In fact, the stake is in the important oil reservoirs which have just been discovered. This second war will cause nearly 2 million deaths.

In 1989, a military junta directed by the Omar general to el-Béchir seizes the capacity in Khartoum with the support of the Muslim brothers, whereas those had collected only 10% of the voices to the elections.

2003

on February 10th, 2003 in Africa, the rebels of SLA /M and MJE, attacks and occupies Gulu, city of North-Darfur, and asserts a better allocation of resources and richnesses. It is the beginning of the new civil war with massacres and destruction of villages. The government of Khartoum arms the nomads arabized against the black farmers by exploiting the dissensions on control with the grounds but also racism to antinoir.

on April 25th, 2003 in Africa, the rebels attack El-Fasher, the regional capital: 70 soldiers are killed.

In September 2003 in Africa, a first assessment of the massacres gives a report on several tens of thousands of deaths.

2004

In April 2004 in Africa a cease-fire, signed with Djamena, is issued, but it is not respected and violences continue.

In May 2004 in Africa, according to the German newspaper Die Welt , the Syria would have tested chemical weapons in Darfur; Syrian officers met representatives of the Sudanese government in the suburbs of Khartoum. The Syrian delegation would have in particular “ offered a close co-operation in the field of the chemical war ”. On its side, Khartoum “would have advised to test chemical weapons on the population” of Darfur. The Safety advice of UNO worries about the situation.

on July 3rd, 2004 in Africa, at the time of the arrival in Khartoum of the general secretary of UNO, Kofi Annan, the Sudanese authorities began to disarm the militia djandjaouides (Arab militia) which are shown rapes, murder and plunderings in the villages of Darfur. The United Nations estimate since little progress had been recorded. “ I regret having to say that attacks of militia djandjaouids continue to take place ”, regretted on July 21st, 2004 in Africa, Kofi Annan.

on July 23rd, 2004 in Africa, UNO estimates at: 30,000 the number of people killed in fifteen months and, more than one million were moved by the engagements. Close to: 200,000 of them massed in camps in the precarious living conditions on other side of the border Chad ienne.

on July 30th 2004 the resolution 1556 of the Safety advice of UNO decides a Embargo on the military material, but bound for the nongovernmental militia only.

Starting from August 23rd, 2004 in Africa, of the discussions with the militia was committed. Organized by the African Union, the purpose of they are to disarm the militia and to guarantee the safety of the local populations.

In September 2004 in Africa, the US government denounces a Génocide.
on September 18th, 2004 in Africa, the Safety advice of UNO adopts a resolution on Darfur (resolution 1564). The text threatens Sudan of oil sanctions if it does not fill the commitment to restore safety in Darfur and with the African Union does not cooperate to this end. The Sudanese Foreign Minister, Moustafa Osmane Ismaïl, stated that it rejects this new draft Resolution.

In October 2004 in Africa, the African Union sends 3.300 soldiers.
In December 2004 in Africa, the engagements intensify.

2005

At the end of the month of January 2005 in Africa, a bombardment makes a hundred dead and casualties with Changil Tobaya in the north of Darfur. UNO makes the air force Sudanese responsible for this massacre.

on January 31st, 2005 in Africa, the commission of international survey on the Sudan of UNO publishes a report which concludes that the exactions perpetrated in Darfur constitute well “crimes against humanity” , but not a genocide.

the resolution 1591 extends the embargo to the military material bound for all " belligérant" in Darfur. It is this resolution which is violated by China and Russia, which state pretense that Khartoum takes part in the attacks.

on March 31st, 2005 in Africa, the Safety advice of UNO adopted the resolution nº 1593 on the question of Darfur. It returns the situation to the International penal court so that this one engages of the continuations against the persons in charge of the committed crimes.

In April 2005 in Africa, manpower of the force of the African Union pass to 7.000 soldiers.

In July 2005 in Africa, the arrival of the leader Southerner John Garang at the post of Deputy Prime Minister, in applications of the peace agreements, is greeted by important acclamations in the streets of Khartoum. He fought for new Sudan, laic, democratic and levelling, but he dies in an accident of helicopter as of on July 31st, 2005.

In December 2005 in Africa, of the Chadian rebels attacks Adré. The Chad is declared in “ state of belligerence ” with the Sudan.

2006

on March 15th, 2006, the special representative of the General secretary of UNO in Sudan, Jan Pronk, declares that the situation in Darfur “is dark whereas engagements take place the every day”. According to him, “militiamans ridden on camels launch attacks against the villages in the south of Darfur, which caused the death of some 400 people since February”.

on March 28th, 2006 in Africa, the Movement/Armed with release of Sudan (MLS), rebellious independent group in Darfur, invites the leaders present at the top of the Arab Ligue, which opens this same day with Khartoum with the Sudan, “to adopt a clear position concerning the crisis in Darfur, in conformity with the international law” and to make pressure on the Sudanese government so that it accepts the deployment of a international force of maintenance of peace in Darfur.

on May 5th, 2006 in Africa, the Armed with release of Sudan, main movement of the rebellion announces to accept the peace agreement suggested by the African Union. The peace agreement is however signed the engagements continue.

on August 31st, 2006 the safety advice adopts the resolution 1706 to take the changing of the African Union. The Sudanese government disallows the proposal (even if in practice its application does not require the agreement of the government). With the favor of this resolution, the quota of the Blue helmets in Darfur will be raised to reach a global manpower of some: 17,300 men, decision disputed by Sudan.

In August 2006 in Africa, UNO votes the deployment of 20.600 Blue helmets on the territory even of Darfur, but the Sudanese government refuses.

on September 17th, 2006 in Africa, the Mondiale day for Darfur saw to be organized in various points of the sphere of the demonstrations in favor of the populations of the Sudanese western area. This mobilization of international scale aimed at that of the sensitizing of the world public opinion.

October/November 2006 in Africa: The crisis of Darfur extends to the close Chad and the Central Africa. Cases of recurring attacks in the refugee camps in Chad are reported. Same procedures that those observed in Darfur are employed by the armed militia. Rapes of women and exactions made without distinction, in particular on children, are to be deplored each week.

on October 22nd, 2006 in Africa, Sudan orders the expulsion of Jan Pronk, the representative of Kofi Annan.
on October 30th, 2006 in Africa, the republic of the Central Africa shows Sudan of aggression.

In December 2006, at the time of its departure of the the United Nations, Kofi Annan declared: Sixty years after the release of the camps of dead the Nazis, thirty years after Kampuchea, the promise of the " never plus" sound hollow. They will be able to have to answer collectively and individually as regards spirit to occur to Darfur. . According to association To save Darfur, this war would have caused an ethnic purification which because more than three hundred and thousand died and more than three million displaced persons.

2007

April 2007: a report/ratio of UNO, provisional and nonofficial, which was published by the site of the NewYork Times and by that of the Sudantribune , shows that the governmental army violates the embargo (resolution 1591), and camouflages planes in white with the initials of UNO " a ".
May 2007:

the International penal court launched two mandates of international stops against 2 Sudaneses, shown war crimes and crimes against humanity:

Ahmed Haroun, the Sudanese former head of safety to Darfur, and current Secretary of State to humanitarian associations,
Ali Kosheib, one of the main leaders of the militia Janjawid S.

the China concedes to take part in the effort of peace by an technical assistance.
Amnesty International publishes a report showing the China and the Russia to provide material to the Sudanese government in spite of the embargo. ONG publishes photographs of Sudanese aircraft of Chinese manufacture to the Darfur.

June 2007:

on June 17th, the French government decided to set up a humane airlift between Abéché and is of Chad, in order to carry assistance to the refugees and moved of Darfur.

July 2007:

on July 31st, the Safety advice of the United Nations unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing the deployment in Darfur of a military force to ensure the safety of the populations and to guarantee the peace agreements. This joint mission with the African Union will increase total manpower of peace to approximately 30.600 (military primarily)

See too

Sudan
Gaffar Mohamed Elhassan
Foamed Hilal
Gabril Abdoul Karim Badri
Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim
the Arch of Zoe

Sources

Nouvel Observateur , n°2068, week of June 24th, 2004, article of Robert Marmoz
Articles WEB of the World : September 2004
Article WEB of the International Courier , September 2004
Article WEB of the Barber , October 9th, 2004
Article WEB of Release , October 6th, 2004

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