Sudan

Sudan

The war in the South

The war in the West: Darfur

War in southern Sudan

Historical overview

• Turco-Egyptian Rule, 1821-1884: all of north and central Sudan under Turco-Egyptian rule.

• The Mahdist Period, 1884-1989: included the west, north and central regions.

• Anglo-Egyptian condominium, 1899-1955: jointly ruled by British and Egyptians. – British largely closed off the south to Northern rule,

separating it.– Darfur region added to Sudan in 1916, ending Fur

sultanate.– “Arabized” elite of the north gain control of state

• Independence, 1956.

Post-colonial SudanSudanese independence saw its northern

elite take over the central government.

They envisioned a country with a unified language, religion and culture. And they controlled resources, focusing on the spreading the benefits very narrowly.

Alex de Waal:

“Sudan is not a state but a process. The process in question is the spread of a set of exclusivist social values and political-economic structures associated with the Arab ‘core’ of Sudan. …The second feature is instability at the centre of power. A ruling coalition has yet to emerge, and politics has swung between authoritarianism and liberalism, secularism and adherence to political Islam. The third feature is orientation: to foreign patrons and creditors, expatriate Sudanese and the Islamist financiers who control their remittances, and international aid institutions. “

Sudan at war

• 1955 – 1972: southerners fight against northern rule. Ends with Addis Ababa Accord, March 1972. Southern autonomy, incorporate fighters into national army, English recognized as South’s principal language.

• 1972 – 1983, peace.

War in Sudan, continued.• In 1983, President Nimeiri, losing support in North, breaches

accords by imposing Sharia law and dividing south into separate administrative units.

• SPLM and SPLA created in 1983 oppose above, call for a new Sudan.

• 1985, Nimeiri deposed. Sadiq Al-Mahdi becomes president, escalates war by arming Baggara militia in West. As possibility of ending war appears, he is overthrown in 1989 by General Omar Al-Bashir, whose National Islamic Front espoused a politicized and intolerant Islam.

• 1985 – 2004, war in the south and Nuba Mountains (1992).

Atrocities:• A divide-to-destroy strategy of pitting ethnic groups against each other, with

enormous loss of civilian life

• The use of mass starvation as a weapon of destruction: manipulation of aid access and resources

• Toleration of the enslavement of women and children by government-allied militias

• The incessant bombing of hospitals, clinics, schools and other civilian and humanitarian targets

• Disruption and destabilization of the communities of those who flee the war zones to other parts of Sudan

• Widespread persecution on account of race, ethnicity and religion

2 million dead

4 million displaced

Primary victims:

Nuer, Dinka, and Nuba.

Oil.

Peace and War

• Machakos Agreement, July 2002.

• A comprehensive peace agreement signed on January 9, 2005.– Self-determination after six years– Access to resources and profits from resources– Separation of state and religion– Power sharing

• Darfur, 2003: a place at the table in new Sudan.

• Responding to Darfur, 2003 - today: “genocide by habit”

Genocide Emergency: Darfur

Who is who?

• Primary victims: Fur, Masaalit, Tunjur, Zaghawa speakers.– African languages, people tend to be agriculturalists.– Rebel groups, Justice and Equality Movement and the

Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement, are largely composed of these ethnic groups.

• Primary perpetrators: largely from Beni Halba tribe and northern nomadic herders called “janjaweit.” Supported and armed by the military of the Sudanese government.– Speak Arabic, tend to be animal herders.– Largely attack only civilian sites.

Stakes of the conflict

• Estimates of tens of thousands dead. Range of numbers from 250,000 – 400,000.

• 2.4 million displaced.

• Some 250,000 refugees in neighboring Chad.

• Widespread rape.

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Committee on Conscience

www.ushmm.org/conscience

Update on the conflict

• African union United Nations Hybrid peacekeeping force.– Currently 10,000– Authorized 26,000– UN can’t find willing nations to donate resources

• Negotiations between government and rebel forces.– Declaration of principles signed July 6. 2006– Potential Bashir indictment before the ICC

• John Garang, leader of SPLA sworn as vice-president of Sudan, July 11, 2005. He died 6 months after taking office.