Sudan is a nation rich with oil and other valuable natural resources; however the desert province of Darfur is only prosperous with hostilities. For thousands of years Sudan has been set as the cultural and geographical crossroads of Africa, uniting north and South Africa and the Islamic Mideast. Language, dance, and even religion coexisted peacefully for thousands of years as well. Sudan shares the jungles of the south, and the Nile from the north. However, recently not all these elements have been in sync, and for many of the Sudanese the Nile still runs red.
Darfur; a region barren and dark. A region where everyday is a blessing, and children can be bought for $35 USD. Its haunting desert landscapes flood our televisions, along with starving children, and gruesome scenes of terror. Darfur is mostly dotted with small villages and towns of poverty-stricken civilians. The territory itself, like Sudan, is torn between the native African majority, and the Islamic extremists. In 2003, rebels in Darfur began demanding rights for black Africans from the Arab dominated Sudanese government. The people of Darfur felt they had been suffocated for far too long. In response to the rebellion, the Sudanese government launched its Arab militia, the Janjaweed, upon the territory. The Janjaweed are ruthless, storming village by village by raping, killing, torching, destroying, and torturing. The innocent people of Darfur were now fighting for their homeland, which was now a barren war zone.
THE GENOCIDE
Since 2003, more than 200,000 innocent civilians have been murdered in Darfur. Although rebels groups in Darfur plan most of the attacks against the Janjaweed militia, the women and children of the small villages mostly pay their price. Villages are commonly ravaged and destroyed within a matter of minuets, its citizens having little or no defense. “For here [Darfur], genocide is practiced daily; with malice that knows no human boundaries” -Lydia Polygreen. A young woman named Amara told a story of horror from her village. “The militia came to my village four times. Whenever they came they started killing and beating people, driving people out of their houses and taking their things. During the first attack I went to the mountains and I spent five days there. When I returned to my village I found everyone was dead. I was the last one left. I was alone in the village for about ten days, and then the militia came back and took the few things that I had left. I managed to escape and then I came here [Chad]. Not only is the war in Darfur a daily struggle for the civilians, but a daily fight for them as well.
Since 2004, 2,500,000 people have migrated west to Chad to escape the murder in Darfur. As violence began to spread along Darfur, make-shift refugee camps began to spring up along the Chad/Sudan border. The only problem was the camps were not prepared for the magnitude of violence and refugees the genocide has created. Thousands have died in aid camps do to lack of medical care, clean water, and food. The Sudanese government has placed tight restrictions on relief organizations, making aid work difficult, and its workers vulnerable to attack. Due to these restrictions; workers are often in short supply, as is money, and transportation. On December 9, 2006 Janjaweed gunman ambushed a medicine and aid truck in Darfur killing 30 people, some of which were burned alive. The situation in eastern Africa is far too dangerous for most humanitarian volunteers. Due to the mass migration of refugees, consequently the war too has migrated with them. As early as 2007 the Darfur conflict had spread to Chad and the Central African Republic.
With hundreds upon thousands of innocent people slaughtered, and millions slowly dieing in aid camps, one might ask why the “super powers” of the world have not done more to end the ongoing four year war. For months upon years many citizens of the United States have been demanding their nation stand tall and aid the people of Darfur. Not until late 2005, did President Bush admit the slaughter in Darfur was in fact genocide. Minus a few US based aid organizations, the United States has not had a major role in Darfur at all. The people of Sudan have the same rights that any human has, and it is time the United States of America starts recognizing it. With a nation of such power and wealth, there is no excuse for not contributing to the relief effort in Africa. The United States should have first recognized the conflict in Darfur as genocide prior to three years into the war. Secondly, the United States should have done something, even if that something was just donating money to relief efforts, or placing a few peace keeping troops on the ground. Rwanda is being repeated in Darfur, and the United States is letting it happened all over again.
