A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #348 - Darfur: A Quarter Century of War (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The Darfur region, located in western Sudan and sharing borders with 
Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic and South Sudan, has been 
severely affected by war for over 25 years. This prolonged conflict has 
plunged the region into alarming economic and security precariousness. 
The population is suffering enormously: nearly 600,000 people have lost 
their lives since the start of the war, while three million others have 
been displaced to neighboring countries or within the region itself. 
----- The war in Darfur began in 2000. It took the form of an uprising 
led by the Darfurian population against the central Sudanese state. This 
revolt aimed to claim a better place for the region in national politics 
and to demand the rights of this population, marginalized by all the 
governments that have ruled the country since its independence. Some 
observers have described this conflict as a war between a neglected 
periphery and a dominant center.

However, events did not develop as the people of Darfur had hoped. 
Indeed, the central state repressed this population brutally, but in a 
particular way: instead of targeting the rebels, state forces directed 
their repression mainly against the civilians of the region. In 
addition, the government exacerbated ethnic divisions, thus transforming 
a war of political demands into an ethnic conflict opposing, on the one 
hand, the Arab populations of the region and, on the other, the black 
populations.
This instrumentalization of ethnic tensions led to the deaths of 
thousands of black civilians, victims of massacres perpetrated with the 
support of the central state by Arab militias. The aim was to curb this 
war of demands waged by the black populations. Between 2000 and 2015, 
there were reports of genocides and ethnic cleansing in the region.
Throughout the Muslim Brotherhood regime (November 1989 - April 2019), 
under the leadership of Omar Al-Bashir, Darfur was a major challenge. 
Al-Bashir, who came to power through a coup, never managed to stabilize 
the region. Much of the territory was beyond state control. Security 
challenges were ever-present, and the humanitarian situation was dire 
for more than three million people living in displacement camps. Unable 
to find lasting solutions, the Muslim Brotherhood government failed to 
restore calm or address the needs of this population. Even after the 
revolution that began in 2018 and led to the establishment of a 
transitional government between July 2019 and October 2021 composed of 
opponents of Omar Al-Bashir, the situation has not really changed. 
Although this transitional government has managed to sign political 
agreements with some rebel groups in Darfur, the challenges remain 
immense. There are at least ten rebel groups in the region, with diverse 
agendas and ideological orientations. As a result, the region continues 
to face an extremely fragile economic situation, millions of displaced 
people hoping to return home, and a deep sense of injustice felt by the 
local population.
In April 2023, a full-scale war broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese 
army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group created by 
the Sudanese army in 2001 to fight rebels in Darfur. Although this 
conflict began in the capital Khartoum, it quickly spread to Darfur. The 
already fragile region was hit even harder. Fighting resumed the same 
day in the region, but this time with different dynamics.
Indeed, the central state's former allies, the RSF, have become its new 
enemies, while former rebels have allied themselves with the Sudanese 
army. These reversals of alliances are explained by complex political 
interests. On the one hand, the Sudanese army has managed to gain the 
trust of its former enemies, the rebel groups. On the other hand, it 
accuses the RSF of treason, since the latter took up arms against their 
former allies.
These upheavals have aggravated the already unstable political situation 
in the region and have led to a humanitarian catastrophe. The population 
is suffering from famine in a region isolated from the rest of the 
country and the world. This situation has also caused a new mass exodus 
to Chad, while Darfur is plunged into total chaos.
Although the whole of Sudan is affected by the war, Darfur is 
particularly affected. Most of the region came under the control of the 
RSF from the beginning of the conflict. This takeover was accompanied by 
massacres of civilians, particularly in the border town of Al-Genina. 
Similarly, the capture of Nyala, the largest city in the region, by the 
RSF, caused thousands of people to flee to other already insecure areas 
controlled by these paramilitary forces.
Today, much of Darfur is under the control of the RSF, which poses a 
major threat to local populations. The only city that still resists is 
Al-Fasher, located in northern Darfur, near the desert and the Libyan 
border. Besieged by the RSF since April 2023, the city suffers regular 
attacks, but it remains under the control of the Sudanese army and its 
rebel allies, thanks to fierce resistance.
As the conflict in Sudan enters its second year and the war in Darfur 
has lasted 25 years, the humanitarian situation remains critical. The 
region, cut off from the rest of the world, sees its agricultural 
projects at a standstill due to the war and massive population 
displacement. The total absence of international aid is worsening this 
crisis.
Millions of people continue to flee to neighboring countries such as 
Chad and Libya, where they face equally precarious economic and security 
conditions.

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4383
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