Genocide in Dafur, Sudan
Death tolls at an all-time high
Tendayi Kumbula
Issue date: 10/8/04 Section: World News
Sudan is in the midst of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Currently, a brutal system of ethnic cleansing is being practiced against the Black people of Darfur, located in the western region of Sudan. Arab militiamen, known as the Janjaweed, are the main cause of these horrific conditions.
"So many men have been killed. I and another woman buried seven men. We put the bodies we could not bury in a shelter, but the Janjaweed returned in the night and burnt the shelter and the bodies, a woman described to Amnesty International delegates after her village was attacked by the militia.
According to a September 13 report by the U.N. Health Organization and the Sudanese Ministry of Health, the mortality rate for children under five years of age is significantly higher than the emergency thresholds. Also, for people aged 15-49, 40% of deaths were a result of violence.
The crisis came to a head in February 2003. The Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice for Equality Movement (JEM) draw their members from ethnic groups, like the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa. Demanding an end to economic disenfranchisement, these two organizations petitioned the government to halt the abuses they suffered under the Arab pastoralists who were taking over their farmlands; the same lands that were already ravaged by desertification and drought.
The Arabic Janjaweed is traditionally a nomadic group of armed militias. The government has not intervened, despite mild international pressure. As a result, the Janjaweed has terrorized the Darfur region by raping women, burning villages, killing Muslim religious leaders, destroying mosques, ruining food stocks, and murdering men women and children alike.
The situation has resulted in over one million Black Sudanese fleeing the Darfur region, their homeland. Unfortunately, the nearly two-year-old crisis will see no end in the near future. Peace talks have failed and the Sudanese government has refused to allow any outside forces to intervene.
"So many men have been killed. I and another woman buried seven men. We put the bodies we could not bury in a shelter, but the Janjaweed returned in the night and burnt the shelter and the bodies, a woman described to Amnesty International delegates after her village was attacked by the militia.
According to a September 13 report by the U.N. Health Organization and the Sudanese Ministry of Health, the mortality rate for children under five years of age is significantly higher than the emergency thresholds. Also, for people aged 15-49, 40% of deaths were a result of violence.
The crisis came to a head in February 2003. The Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice for Equality Movement (JEM) draw their members from ethnic groups, like the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa. Demanding an end to economic disenfranchisement, these two organizations petitioned the government to halt the abuses they suffered under the Arab pastoralists who were taking over their farmlands; the same lands that were already ravaged by desertification and drought.
The Arabic Janjaweed is traditionally a nomadic group of armed militias. The government has not intervened, despite mild international pressure. As a result, the Janjaweed has terrorized the Darfur region by raping women, burning villages, killing Muslim religious leaders, destroying mosques, ruining food stocks, and murdering men women and children alike.
The situation has resulted in over one million Black Sudanese fleeing the Darfur region, their homeland. Unfortunately, the nearly two-year-old crisis will see no end in the near future. Peace talks have failed and the Sudanese government has refused to allow any outside forces to intervene.