February 26, 2008
Five Years of Conflict in Darfur
Today marks the fifth-year anniversary of crisis in Darfur. The political conflict is said to have begun on February 26, 2003 with an attack by rebels in North Darfur—though this was by no means the first outbreak of ethnic violence. In five years, it seems that no progress has been made.
Over the past five years, about 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been displaced. 240,000 of those fled to the neighboring country of Chad, just one of the ways the conflict is affecting the whole region.
Darfur has elicited the world’s biggest relief operation—(there are currently 12,100 humanitarian aid workers on the ground)—but the situation has simply not improved. In May 2006, the government and one rebel group signed a peace deal, but two others refused, and new rebel factions have sprouted since then. The peace deal has done nothing to improve security in the state.
New bombings are adding to the chaos. The U.N. said this week that bombings are endangering thousands of lives and motivating more Darfurians to flee from their homes. Earlier this month, 12,000 more people fled to eastern Chad following two days of bombing by the Sudanese army and Janjaweed militias.
To make matters even worse, the humanitarian effort on the ground is being thwarted by these armed groups. Even efforts to distribute food and resources are being intercepted. Militia groups have been kidnapping humanitarian truck drivers and stealing their trucks, Reuters reported last week. These trucks hold enough food to provide for up to 3.2 million Sudanese civilians, according to U.N. agencies.
Over the past two months, 30 trucks and 18 drivers have gone missing, says the U.N. World Food Program. At the beginning of the new year, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs asked for $930 million to respond to the crisis; much of that will go into food aid. But if the past five years has taught us anything, that money won't do much to end the dire situation in Darfur.
- Posted by Suemedha Sood at 12:19PM on 02/26/08
- 1 comment
Sumedha Sood is a 2007 fellow in the Academy for Alternative Journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. The former assistant editor at the Center for American Progress, she is a frequent contributor to WireTap and AlterNet.org.
Five years Darfur
Posted by: Tomas Palermo on Feb 27, 2008 10:30 AM
"30 trucks and 18 drivers have gone missing" --This stat really stuck out for me. The idea that, in one of the world's poorest places, food will be even less available to those who need it most is beyond tragic.
I still really wonder if other governments could be doing more -- including China and Arab governments friendly with Sudan.
The length of this conflict also brings back into wide relief the confusion and disruption that arbitrary colonial-drawn national borders have wreaked on Africa over the decades. When tribal affiliation trumps national identity, what good are borders, national armies and flags anyway?