Darfur conflict
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The Darfur conflict is an ongoing armed conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan, mainly between the Janjaweed, a militia group recruited from the tribes of the Abbala Rizeigat (Bedouin Arabs), and the non-Baggara people of the region. The Sudanese government denies publicly that it supports the Janjaweed, but it has provided money and assistance and has participated in joint attacks on Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups in Darfur with the group.[1]
The conflict began in July 2003. In Darfur most of the residents are Muslim, and the Janjaweed as well.[2] That is an important difference to the Second Sudanese Civil War, which was fought between the primarily Muslim north and Christian and Animist south.
Fighting worsened in July and on August 31, 2006. Therefore the United Nations Security Council approved Resolution 1706 which called for a new 17,300-troop UN peacekeeping force to supplement a poorly funded, ill-equipped 7,000-troop African Union Mission in Sudan peacekeeping force. Sudan strongly objected to the resolution and said that it would see the UN forces in the region as foreign invaders. The next day, the Sudanese military launched a major offensive in the region.
The estimates about number of deaths in the conflict vary widely. According to Sudan's government, 9,000 people have been killed; most NGOs use 200,000 to over 400,000, a figure from the Coalition for International Justice that has since been cited by the United Nations. As many as 2.5 million are thought to have been displaced as of October 2006.[3]
[edit] Notes
- ↑ "Rights Group Says Sudan's Government Aided Militias", Washington Post, 2004-07-20. Retrieved on 2007-01-14.
- ↑ See Wikipedia entries on the Fur and Zaghawa as well as articles in USA Today, Slate and the New York Review of Books. Additionally, the Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary-General (PDF), United Nations, 25 January 2005, states: "The various tribes that have been the object of attacks and killings (chiefly the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa tribes) do not appear to make up ethnic groups distinct from the ethnic group to which persons or militias that attack them belong. They speak the same language (Arabic) and embrace the same religion (Islam)" (p. 129).
- ↑ "African Union Force Ineffective, Complain Refugees in Darfur", Washington Post, October 15, 2006.
[edit] Bibliography and external links
