Darfur. Genocide.

The worst humanitarian crisis in the history of the world
In one of the most remote locations of the world, in Darfur, the western corner of the country of Sudan, a major crisis transpires.

Genocide: the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national,racial, political, or cultural group.

This very definition is being lived out right now by hundreds of thousands of people. For over three years ongoing violence has devastated the remote region of Darfur in Sudan. Conflicts between government financed militias and African tribes have left over 2.5 million people displaced, living in temporary camps where the conditions are practically unbearable and where the food is scarce. Fighting has reduced villages to rubble and ashes, turned crops to barren fields. Up until now approximately 400,000 Sudanese have died as a result of violence, malnutrition, or disease. Of course, this figure keeps rising at a rate of 2500 people each week with no sign of slowing down any time soon. This humanitarian crisis is only getting worse. The camps are full beyond their capacity and UN peacekeepers have been prohibited from intervening in this crisis.

There has been tension between the Arabs and the Africans ever since the 1970’s. This tension was propelled primarily by the competition for scarce natural resources in this arid land. The situation rapidly escalated in February 2003 when the two rebel groups of African Muslims: Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)(These rebel groups are forged from members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic tribes.), demanded power-sharing within the Arab-ruled Sudanese state, and called for an end to the economic marginalization they were experiencing. As a result, the Khartoum government, which is the national Sudanese government, retaliated by arming local militias to suppress these revolts.

These militias, knows as “Janjaweed,” persistently and incessantly terrorize the Africans in the Darfur area. They destroy villages, maim and kill the men, systematically rape the women to weaken tribal ethnic lines, drain the food supply, and deplete the remaining resources by blockading any international aid. The government is directly carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign because of their financing and supplying of the Janjaweed. There are reports that the local government has instituted a policy known as “forced starvation” by allowing the militias prevent food delivery. Of course, these reports are backed by the fact that the militias are not allowing access to many of the Darfur refugee camps within Darfur.

Needless to say, this report only represents a drop in the bucket compared to the atrocities that are going on in Sudan. International aid is being repressed and no one is allowed to enter the killing zone. It is impossible to know how many people have actually perished at the hands of the Janjaweed, disease and malnutrition. The figure of 400,000 could actually be several hundred thousand below the true death toll. It is evident that the Sudanese government has directly tried to ethnically cleanse “their land.” Conditions in this torn and tormented region are repulsive and shocking. These people have completely forgotten the meaning of the word “hope.” Time is running out. The violence, the rape, the hunger, the disease; they are all issues that need to be dealt with, but who will step up and do something about it?

peace.