Sudan: Bereft with Over Fifty Years of Conflict

Very few of us know much about Sudan- other than that it has a place in it called “Darfur” where there is a violent civil war. We have all seen the t-shirts that say “Save Darfur” and many of us have seen the Invisible Children movie, but what are we trying to save them from? What really is going on there? I pride myself as being someone who knows what happens outside of the United States daily, but I have recently realized how little I actually know about what stemmed this conflict. It seems totally ludicrous that any one can try to fix a problem without knowing the causes of the conflict (let alone where the country is located), so today when I came across the BBC headline “Darfur: Little Hope Five Years On”, I planned on writing my own policy prescription for how to restore peace to the region but quickly realized that I too knew very little about what the actual problem was. In noting my own ignorance, I recognized that many of my readers and peers are probably just as in the dark. So in hopes of enlightening both myself and others on what is really happening, my "policy prescription" has expanded to include a brief history of Sudan, specifically leading to the conflict in Darfur. While the most recent clash broke out in 2003, the country has actually been ravaged by civil war since independence. With this in mind, bringing peace to Sudan seems a bit more complicated and dreary, although still entirely possible because of massive international attention and intervention.

According to the U.S. Department of State's nation profile, Sudan is the largest country in Africa, covering as much land mass as the continental United States east of the Mississippi River. Although its citizens are called “Sudanese”, the country is actually made up of several different tribes, with vastly varying beliefs, that came under British imperialist rule in the early nineteenth century. Because the borders of African nations were arbitrarily drawn by the Europeans, it is little surprise that civil war broke out almost immediately following Sudan’s independence in 1953. The internal conflict raged between the North, consisting of Arabic Islamics, and the South, a compilation of tribes that consider themselves Black African, until 2002 when peace talks began to unite rifts. In the course of those fifty years, it is estimated that the war cost over $1.5 million a day, a figure that can only be minimized by the death of 1.2 million people.

As though this story is not devastating enough in and of itself, in February 2003 there were increasing numbers of attacks on civilians, specifically the Non- Arab tribes. Because the government was doing little to stop the violence, two rebel groups took it upon themselves to protect their land and people. These two militias, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have been fighting against an Arab nomad group knows as the Janjaweed (who is supported and financed by the Sudanese government) for over six years now with no end in sight. While those involved claim their grievances to be based on ethnic and tribal inequality within Sudan, the conflict has been exacerbated by drought, overpopulation and starvation.

By September of the following year, the international community had recognized that a genocide was occurring in Darfur and both sides were responsible. The United Nations has passed several resolutions to “protect the civilian population and humanitarian participants, seek avenues toward a political settlement to the humanitarian and political crisis, and recognize the need for the rapid deployment of an expanded African Union mission in Darfur” (Profile). In addition, the UN Security Council, the United States, and the African Union have sent a peace-keeping task force to the region, which is supposed to eventually number over 26,000 strong. On top of all of these measures, the government and militia groups have signed numerous cease fires. Still the fighting has continued interminably.

The situation in Darfur is a far uglier one than imaginable. The conflict can be prolonged indefinitely because both the rebel groups and military army have access to and make use of a largely unlimited resource: soldiers, specifically children who are captured and trained to fight. As for the people living in the region who have managed to escape capture and death, their circumstances are not much better. Today it is believed that over 2 million Sudanese people have fled to neighboring Chad and are now living in camps for internally displaced people (IDP). A BBC journalist who recently visited one of these sites spoke to several refugees who reported “toddlers being burnt alive in villages as men on horseback razed their houses to the ground; women being raped as they fled their homes looking for safety” (Henshaw). Only four days ago, people in Chad heard bombs beings dropped from helicopters that have been identified as belonging to the Sudanese government army (‘Still Bombing’). As a direct result, refugees who are trying to reenter Sudan to look for their family are being denied passage. In addition, Chad fears the conflict may cross their borders, so IDP camps are being relocated farther from the fighting.

With all this in mind, what can be done to stop the war that has not already been tried? First, the entire UN peace keeping force needs to be deployed. Currently only 9,000 of the 26,000 task force are actually in Darfur. Perhaps there should be consideration of bringing even more military power into the region. Because most of the raids occur at night, patrols consisting of people familiar with the terrain should be placed around villages to minimize these surprise attacks on unarmed civilians. In addition, more effort should be made to capture the top officials of the army and rebel groups as a way to break down the power structures. It is not effective to simply kill those who are ransacking towns because as mentioned earlier, soldiers are not hard to come by. On the political side, harsher punishments need to be placed on high officials in the militaries who are responsible for ordering large scale human rights violations that have led to this massive genocide wherein over 400,000 people have been killed. Those responsible need to reach a cease-fire that can be enforced, beginning by placing leaders in prison upon reaching an agreement. Following this, all of the soldiers need to be demobilized and placed through a rigorous reintegration program as a way to ensure that smaller factions do not restart conflicts in the future. While this is taking place, international volunteer groups should rebuild towns with homes and schools for the internally displaced people to return to. As another preventative measure, the Sudanese government should work to help alleviate the marginalized lifestyle the natives of Darfur endured prior to the conflict. Although all of these measures will help to end the immediate civil war, the international community needs to address border issues in not only Sudan, but throughout most of Africa as a way to lessen the chance of a similar outbreak of conflict. This is not to suggest that borders should be redrawn because this would undoubtedly lead to widespread unrest; however, government policies should address both majority rule and minority rights within each nation.

There are no words in the English language that can even begin to describe the atrocities that have taken place in Sudan since it became an independent nation. The fact that we still have been unable to resolve the circumstances in Darfur is evidence that the international community is not doing enough to protect and guarantee basic civil rights and liberties to people around the globe. Much more can still be done by the UN, the African Union, single nations, human rights organizations, and each of us as individuals. As the banner says, we need to do all we can to make sure that what is happening in Darfur happens "Never Again."