...Geography 120/Section 1 10 December 2007 Crisis in Darfur The crisis in Darfur is a very serious and ugly situation happening in the very heart of Africa in the country of Sudan. This is a conflict of much bloodshed and death that has been going on for many years and there seems to be no end in sight. It is a complicated conflict involving many people including rebel groups and corrupt governments. I will discuss the history of this conflict and how it is affecting the people and the country. I will also talk about different solutions to possibly end this horrible conflict. The Darfur conflict has often been portrayed as a struggle between Arabs and Africans sparked by ethnic and tribal tension over competition of resources. However as with many conflicts in Sudan and Africa as a whole there is no single root cause. It is a set of intertwined factors that are driving this war. Things such as historical grievances, perception of race, demand for power, the distribution of economic resources, and access to resources are just several of the numerous factors that are driving this war. This quote by a struggling woman typifies what is going on in Darfur, “I have been waiting here two days for my turn, and if the water finishes I will have to ask for water from other people," says Khadija Musa, the elderly woman. "Sometimes I have to borrow water to cook. Our clothes are filthy, we cannot wash without water." She rubs her shoulder and sighs. "The only thing left is to...
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...For my part of the report on the crisis in Darfur I will be explaining what exactly the crisis is going on in that part of the world. I will be looking at both sides of the conflict to give the rest of the class the opportunity to form their own opinion on the crisis. The conflict started when a group of angry rebels began to bomb certain government targets, claiming that the Darfur region was being neglected by the government because of the regions ethnicity. The rebels claim is that the government is oppressing the black Africans in favor of the Arabs in the region. Also the Janjaweed have been going through that part of Sudan performing the ethnic cleansing of black Africans. Refugees from Darfur say that after air raids by the Sudan government the Janjaweed would ride into the villages on horsebacks and camels. And would proceed to slaughter the men, rape the women and steal whatever they could find. Many women have complained about being kidnapped and held as sex slaves for more than a week and then were released. In light of this; millions of citizens have fled their destroyed villages to camps that are near Darfur’s main towns. But still the Janjaweed still patrol outside the town waiting for any man or woman to wander to far and then will kill the man and rape the woman. Also some of the citizens have fled to the neighboring country of Chad. In total researchers believe that nearly 200,000 people have been killed, but UN officials believe that the number is about 300...
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...Darfur, Sudan Since early 2003, Darfur, an arid desert region the size of France, has been gripped by a civil war since 2003 that has killed 300,000 people and displaced another 2.7 million, according to UN figures. Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, says 10,000 people have died. (AFP) The conflict in Darfur began in the spring of 2003 when two Darfuri rebel movements, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), launched attacks against Khartoum government military installations in response to government neglect and marginalization of the people of Darfur. Sudanese officials answered back by unleashing atrocious acts of violence on any Darfur villages who they determined had ostensibly harbored members of the SLM and JEM. Bombing villages from the air and with the hired help of a government armed nomadic Arab militia called the Janjaweed, over four hundred villages were burnt down, sending the few survivors to seek out refugee camps spread throughout the region and into neighboring Chad. All of this occurred within the span of 29 months. In 2004 George W. Bush declared the crisis in Darfur a “genocide”. Genocide, as defined by Merriam Webster, is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group”. It is within the power of the United States government to end the brutalities in Darfur. A more assertive action needs to be taken in order free the Darfur people from the atrocities they suffer on a day...
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...Last year on September 9, 2014, “the on-going conflict in Darfur, Sudan was declared “genocide” by United States Secretary of State Colin Powell”("Darfur Genocide « World Without Genocide - Working to Create a World Without Genocide."). The Darfur Genocide specifically refers to the wiping out of the Darfur race of people in Western Sudan. Starting in 2003 and still happening today, it is the first genocide of the 21st century and could potentially be the worst. By way of recent recognition, the United Nations calls it the greatest crisis in the world; and the United States now calls it genocide. But the damage done to the people of Darfur may already be beyond repair. What’s happening is taking place in Sudan, the largest country in Africa. Where almost 480,000 people...
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...SAVE DARFUR “We want to go home, but how can we when there is no peace?”–Zakaria Arbab What have you done today? Have you fought for your life? Have you watched your mother or sister be raped? Have you looked into your father’s eyes and know everything is not okay? Have you felt the fear that at any second, your whole life could be shattered? These people have. They experience that unbearable pain everyday, pain that we can’t even begin to imagine. Every single day, innocent families are being torn apart, women are being raped; children are being left without a family and without a home. This is a map of Sudan highlighting Darfur, the area that is affected by the violence. It was 2003 when Darfur was first devastated by torture, destruction, rape, and murder. This deadly conflict between rebel tribes and the government is still occurring today. Many of the minority tribes have been forced into refugee camps and left to starve and die. Many others have seen their houses and lives burned to ashes or they have watched family and friends being killed by the Sudanese military. Amnesty International USA has reported that so far, 400,000 men, women, and children have been killed and 2.6 million have been left without a home. So how much is too much? At what point will we stand up and stop this genocide? After 500,000 have lost their lives? 600.000? 700,000? Has the world not learned from the tragedies that happened in Rwanda just over a decade ago...
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...DARFUR DIARIES: MESSAGE FROM HOME DARFUR DIARIES: A MESSAGE FROM HOME (, 2004, p. 2) When the Antonovs dropped bombs on us, we ran to hide under the trees. The one who were not killed ran away. Antonovs killed my father. I saw many people killed. I saw it with my eyes. Many people were killed with him. This is an excerpt from the documentary Darfur Diaries, and it is from a young man named Mubarak. Mubarak’s story is one of the many unimaginable accounts of the genocide currently happening in Darfur. Darfur Diaries is probably one of the most difficult film I have watched. I found the film very brutally honest and raw. It elicited three emotions from me. First was shock and disbelief. I cannot fathom the fact that a modern day genocide is happening at this very moment. Given our history with violence and war, it is only logical to expect that we, as human beings, have learned our lessons. And yet, it seems like history is repeating itself. What’s even devastating about it, is the fact that people like myself know so little about it. Second, was profound sadness. It was so heartbreaking to watch and hear the Darfurian people’s daily account of horror. The film provides such a vicarious sensation of their everyday nightmare. Not only are they deprived of the basic needs such as food and shelter but are also stripped off dignity in the most inhumane way. And lastly, the film instilled in me a great admiration for the people of Darfur. I commend their courage and great...
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...In early 2003, a horrific event started; genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Genocide is the intentional killing of a mass quantity of people, usually of people of a particular ethnic group. In the following, you will see how this gruesome act was put into action. Darfur, Sudan is located in northeast Africa. Surrounding Sudan is Egypt to the north, Ethiopia and Eritrea to the east, South Sudan to the south, and Chad to the west. The Sudanese government committed the genocide. The government orchestrated the genocide because they wanted to stop the rebel groups from their up rise against the government. In February of 2003 the Darfur Liberation Front (later the Sudan Liberation Army) attacked Gulu, the capital of the district of Jebel Marra. Their second attack was on April 25, 2003. In Darfur, Sudan, two rebellious groups, the Sudanese Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, attacked the El Fasher airport....
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...Crisis in Darfur: An Educational Simulation July 10, 2009 U.S. Diplomacy Center Department of State PARTICIPANT BACKGROUND GUIDE INTRODUCTION: “CRISIS IN DARFUR” Whether the murder, rape, pillage, and displacement of tens of thousands in the Darfur region of Sudan is labeled a tragedy, or civil war, or ethnic cleansing, or genocide “in slow motion” 1, the world can’t ignore what is going on in western Sudan. According to the UN, over 2.1 million people are believed to have left their homes, and up to 70,000 have been killed. Other estimates put the death toll higher, up to 400,000. International media has only limited access due to the remoteness and instability in this vast region the size of France. So we don’t see all the day to day details of suffering as we did, for example, in late 1998 in Kosovo. Those images and reports helped trigger UN ultimatums and eventual NATO intervention in 1999. After the Holocaust, the world said “never again” should we stand by and watch while millions are slaughtered. After the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s, after the Rwandan genocide of 1994, and after the mass killings in Srebrenica in Bosnia in 1995, the world also stood by, and then said “never again.” And now we have Darfur. Thus Darfur can be seen as a profound test of the credibility of the international community: the United Nations, the international NGO community, the African Union, and citizens and governments around the world. Is there the will to act in Darfur or will we stand...
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...diplomatic target due to its rich natural resources. Up till today, the Chinese investment occupies 44% of all areas combined in Africa.1 In Angola, Chinese investors own 37% of the investments, and they benefit from these investments by earning millions of dollars. Seen from the outside, The Chinese seems is making a significant effort of making a win-win situation between China and Africa. In fact, China is often dealing its investment with the rouge governments and even, dictators. Example has been given in the book The Beijing Consensus. “Beijing has maintained strong economic relations with Khartoum since 2002, focusing on Sudan’s considerable natural resources.”1 A year later the genocide broke out between the Khartoum’s government and the Darfur region in Sudan. The conflict killed over two hundred thousand Darfurians and millions were displaced. The UN Security Council failed on intervene the violence because China’s diplomatic protection of Sudan. Interestingly, China did all these publically. China today is not afraid of public opinions any more, it shows more initiative in international affairs. From the Sudan incident, China has been labeled as a hot potato in terms of the foreign policy which China practices. A major issue with the Chinese influence is human rights problem. In chapter three of the book, figure 3.1 shows that reported human rights abuses relate to China is extremely...
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...their family cries over them. Hundreds of men covered in soot and soil, coughing and sputtering, climbing out of oil holes and caves for little to no pay. This is Sudan (About Sudan). Over the years Sudan has steadily gone down the drain. Lead by the twice indicted president Omar al-Bashir, it has been plagued by genocide and war. Around 1955 the people of Sudan became fed up with the government and demanded to break away. IN response, the Sudanese government bombed Darfur, a city in southern Sudan, and many other villages’ where the rebellion was taking place. Over four million people perished. Finally, after years of brutal devastation, Bashir signed the Comprehensive Peace agreement in 2005. This allowed South Sudan to become an independent country. Unfortunately, more bombing and conflicts have aroused in South Sudan and Darfur, leaving the country yet again in shambles. The Janjaweed, a corrupt militia led by Bashir have created genocide, forcing any future agreement for peace impossible. The militia plundered Darfur and the surrounding areas, putting Sudan in yet another civil war. Without the help of other nations, this once great country will die off and valuable resources that could help the world like coal will be blocked off. Eliminating Omar al-Bashir takes care of this problem, and over time, Sudan can become a nation again (Conflicts). Sudan’s downfall started in 1884, when the European countries gathered in the Berlin conference. This conference decided the boundaries...
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...DARFUR... Every so often an event of global concern transpires before the eyes of the world but yet appears to be recapped with enormous variation. Whether this event is of social, economic, political or environmental concern, certain points of information are naturally of greater significance to particular parties: hence the variation in reporting. The discrepancy in information is generally evident from one geographic region to the next. If one were to take any event of global importance such differences would be extremely evident. Take the event that occurred on May 5th, 2006. On this date, after a lengthy negotiating session, the Sudanese government and the largest of the Darfur rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), signed a hard-fought peace agreement intended to end three years of desolation and bloodshed in Darfur. By focusing on three different newspaper articles covering this event—the Wall Street Journal, The Independent, and Comtex News, representing the regions of North America, United Kingdom, and Africa respectively—one can conclude that each respective news source places greatest emphasis on the information that most concerns themselves, and infuses their region’s historic and eminent perspectives. The Wall Street Journal’s article, “The Devil in Darfur,” focused on the superior role that America and the Bush Administration played in the progress of the peace agreement over the roles nations’ such as France and Sweden played. In regards to the future...
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...In the article “Chaos in Darfur on Rise as Arabs Fight With Arabs”, the two tribes Terjem and the Mahria are fighting each other in South Darfur. The battle started in December, when the mahria migrated with their camels through Terjem territory near the Bulbul River. The article states that their partnership of Fur Land broke down last year which made the situation worse and led to harsh violence. The conditions have gotten to a point where traveling by road has also become dangerous. One of the major violence that this article talks about is the infighting in July near Sania Daleibah. More than 60 Terjems were killed by the Mahria tribesman. The ethical problem in this article is the following: the two Muslim tribes are battling each other which is leading to the killing of thousands and they cannot seem to resolve this problem. First of all the idea of the doctrine of recollection refers to prior knowledge that is already within our selves. It also means that rather than 'learning' in the common sense, what is actually occurring when people think about something, is that they are 'recollecting' things that they already knew. This idea can relate to this article in couple of ways. The article states, the violence from Terjem and the Mahria is leading to deaths of the unfair and injustice to the society. However the question is that do these two groups know themselves what they have to do to stop this bloodshed? Yes, but that knowledge of compromise has to come to them by...
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...The conflict in the Darfur Region of Sudan began in February of 2003. At least 400,000 people have been murdered and more than 2.5 million civilians have been displaced. These citizens now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring country known as Chad. More than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival, some of which isn’t able to reach areas in Darfur. Women are raped and tortured and innocent civilians lack the most basic protections. The Sudanese armed forces and Sudanese government-backed militia known as “Janjaweed” have been fighting two rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The stated political aim of the rebels has been to force the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of the region. In response, the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and the Janjaweed have targeted civilian populations and ethnic group from which the rebels primarily draw their support which would include the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa. The Darfur Peace Agreement also known as the Abuja Agreement, is a peace agreement signed in May 2006 by the largest rebel group the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Mini Menawi and the Sudanese Government was an effort to achieve peace in Darfur. The agreement addressed the long-standing banishment of Darfur and was intended to chart...
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...After decades of conflict, the GoSS faces a massive task in leading recovery and development efforts, and the challenges of policy-making and implementation in Southern Sudan cannot be overstated. This chapter examines the key policy frameworks guiding government efforts to support long-term recovery and development, focusing on the over-arching vision of ‘taking towns to the people’, expenditure priorities and strategies for economic growth and governance. These policy areas are relevant to urbanisation in Juba for a number of reasons. First, policies on governance envisage a decentralised Southern Sudan in which Juba is treated equally with all state capitals in policy terms. However, implementation of the Local Government Act is already clashing with a parallel move towards the centralisation of key powers within the GoSS. Juba’s dual status as capital of South Sudan and of Central Equatoria State also raises particular challenges in relation to urban management. Second, the GoSS strategy for economic growth identifies agriculture as a key area for investment. So far, however, the growth in private sector activity has taken place in Juba and surrounding areas within Central Equatoria State, driven by the influx of government ministries, civil servants and aid agencies. Finally, the upcoming referendum on the future of Southern Sudan, due in January 2011, will have an important impact on policy processes. 3.1 ‘Takng towns to the people’ In 2004, a policy of ‘taking towns...
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...more than tens times the minimum wage. Thesis Statement: This tells me what your position on the topic is as well as how you are going to support it. Example: Her suggestion is ridiculous and should be opposed for three reasons. First of all, it is arbitrary – why should it be 10 times the wealth of the poor and not 8 or 15. Secondly, it is un-American by going against basic liberal values of freedom and one’s right to pursue their economic dreams. Finally, it is likely to be destructive to economic growth. Indeed, numerous studies show that the type increased taxes Ackerman supports have hurt us in the past. Here is an example of a thesis paragraph all put together (with a title): The Conflict in Darfur: Causes, Consequences, and International...
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