Focus on Darfur

It was in 2003 that the U.N. alerted nations to a “little-known war” in a tiny part of Sudan. At that time, it was believed that the scale of the conflict was much smaller. But Darfuris reported genocidal behavior and “aerial bombardment, ” despite the government’s insistence that the most violent strikes, by the Janjaweed (which means “a man on a horse with a gun”), were not government-affiliated.

More history of the Darfur conflict is available from GlobalSecurity.org, a source of information about military conflict for journalists and others. Included here are facts about the rebel and government groups at odds in Darfur: the Janjaweed, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). GlobalSecurity explains the connections among these groups, the tribal history of the region and how the climate and geography of the region have contributed to the conflict.

Reuters AlertNet has a “Crisis Profile” on Darfur, outlining the causes of the crisis, recent developments and various statistics about the affected population, including malnutrition and mortality rates. Reuters mentions “violence makes it difficult to deliver aid in parts of Darfur,” but that the region is now the target of the “world’s biggest relief operation.”

The presence of oil in Darfur, discovered in 2005 by a Swiss and Sudanese company, is said to be both a risk and a potential white flag. As AlertNet notes in its in-depth coverage of the region, experts have claimed it’s a good thing: “Drilling is risky during conflict, and if the oil can be extracted, there will be more wealth to go around.”

PBS journalist Amy Costello, reporting for a PBS Frontline special in 2005, was a firsthand witness to the effects of genocide in Darfur. A video of her experiences is on the PBS site, providing an inside look at a crisis that she calls “entirely man-made.” Costello was one of the first journalists to report atrocities that are now common knowledge, thanks to groups like Save Darfur and Not On Our Watch, who have dedicated themselves to making sure people know about the situation in Darfur and have access to resources that provide aid.

Costello interviews refugee Darfuris, whose first-hand accounts of the Janjaweed have helped piece together who is responsible for the violence, abductions, and village-burning. Costello also reports that the death rate in the remaining villages and refugee camps is about 5,000 to 10,000 people a month, and many of these deaths are attributable to not just the Janjaweed, but the Sudanese Air Force. Some of the women she interviewed say that their houses were destroyed by planes. At the time, the government claimed that such bombings were “intended to root out rebels,”; instead, they struck civilian targets.

Links to more educational material on the crisis, including books, videos, and Web sites, are available on the site of Save Darfur, the international aid coalition.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum features an online project between itself and the free application Google Earth that allows users to view the Darfur crisis from above. Use Google Earth to zoom in on the area and employ interactive tools to learn about specific damage and destruction to the area.