Sudan, the largest country in Africa, is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, Kenya and Uganda to the southeast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest. Despite of the drought of Africa, the White Nile and the Blue Nile intersect in the territory of Sudan so it has also strategic importance, in terms of  water. Sudan has variety of religion and ethnicity with its 35 million populations and ethnic groups speaking languages and dialects more than 400. Furthermore, Africa, especially Sudan, is important strategic region keeping natural resources such as oil, uranium, natural gas and copper. Not only being the most important supplier of oil to other countries in the region, but also having fourth copper and third uranium resources of the world provide strategic and geopolitical significance to Sudan among the other countries in the Africa.

Where is Darfur and what is its significance?

Darfur, as wide as France, is the western part of Sudan’s vast deserts and barren land with 6 million population. Most of the people living in Darfur, divided into three distinct regions as north, middle and south, are black Africans. Generally, Muslims and Arabic people are dominant in the region. These characteristics of the region have been seen for years, but the name of Darfur began to be heard mostly for last decade. What is happening in the critical area?  What made Darfur crisis one of the most complicated contemporary problems in the world? The basic answer of these questions is that number of international, regional and local actors acting in Darfur area and increase in actions of these actors are motivating chaos in the region. In order to deeply analyze Crisis in Darfur, firstly we should examine why, when and between whom crisis began in western part of Africa…

Darfur Crisis

War in Darfur started in February 2003 in Darfur, Sudan. Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement took up arms, accusing the government of oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs. While the one side composed of the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed, recruited mostly from the Afro-Arab tribes of the northern  region in Sudan, the other side consisted of the rebel groups, notably the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, recruited primarily from the non-Arab and Muslim people and other ethnic groups. The Sudanese government is accused of providing financial assistance to the militia, and of participating in joint attacks targeting civilians.

USA has described the conflict as genocide, but the UN has not recognized the conflict as such. On 31 January 2005, the UN released a report saying that while there were mass murders and rapes of Darfur civilians, they could not namel the events as “genocide” because “genocidal intent appears to be missing”. However, many activists refer to the crisis in Darfur as genocide, including the Save Darfur Coalition and the Genocide Intervention Network.

The Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Minni Minnawi, signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government in May 2006. After that, the United Nations Security Council approved Resolution 1706 which called for a new 26,000-troop UN peacekeeping force called UNAMID to supplant or supplement a poorly funded and ill-equipped 7,000-troop African Union Mission in Sudan peacekeeping force on 31 August 2006. Sudan strongly objected to the resolution and said that it would see the UN forces in the region as foreign invaders. The following day, the Sudanese military launched a major offensive in the region.

The UN mission accused Sudan’s government of taking part in “gross violations” in Darfur and called for urgent international action to protect civilians there in March 2007.

The prosecutor at the ICC filed ten charges of war crimes against Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, charges that included three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity, and two of murder on 14 July 2008. The ICC’s prosecutors have claimed that al-Bashir “masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part” three tribal groups in Darfur because of their ethnicity. On 4 March, 2009 the ICC issued an arrest warrant for president al-Bashir, without the genocide charges, claiming they lacked sufficient evidence.

In February 2010, Peace Agreement was signed between Sudanese Government and  Justice and Equality Movement. However, other rebel groups rejected to sign a peace agreement. This agreement was hoped to stop the war in the region and cause the peace in critical area.

Background of the Darfur Crisis

Thus far events mentioned are reflections through media to the world. On the other hand, there is also invisible side of the crisis which is essential cause of the conflict. Crisis reflected as Darfur Crisis does not show realities in the area because draught and economic underdevelopment lead to conflict and disagreement between tribes. Traditional tribal clashes are absolutely acting important role in the shaping the crisis, however, actual responsible for actions are imperialist powers causing ethnic and religious rebellions and supporting rebel groups.

Imperialism with the support of media shows the situation in Sudan as genocide against the Africans by Arabic people and conflict between Muslims and Christians (despite few numbers) to the world. They distorted realities in Darfur case. It means that Western media reflects Arabs as ‘evil’ and there is a division and hard conflict between Africans and Arabic people although draught and economic underdevelopment creates traditional conflicts. This scenario is not strange for us. The logic in the case is simple: Imposing idea of genocide facilitates military intervention in Sudan as we saw in the other regions in the last years. If USA uses this tactic successfully other parts of the world (Iraq), why does not it want to take over resources of Darfur with this tactic?

According to Sudan Research Center, International Criminal Court is a Guantanamo where only Africans were condemned. Court has not imposed any sanctions on USA and other big powers. They only judge Sudan and other African countries despite they did not apply anything against USA due to the crimes in Iraq invasion.

Current Situation

People are dying all over the world because of the starvation or wars. However, in Darfur, people have died for several years because of not only wars, but also the starvation.. Rape, death, drought and famine are continuing in this poor African country and world is continuing to keep silent to this savagery. Nowadays, last events and peace agreement began to give hope, expected for long years, to the people in Darfur, also sensible people in the world…Case will be continued…

Gülşah ASLANTÜRK