Period 10
Genocide in Darfur
In 2003, a genocide began in the Darfur region of Sudan. According to the website, “World Without Genocide” the Sudanese government armed arab militia groups to attack ethnic affair groups. This has escalated to the mass slaughter of 480,000 people. The Sudanese government called this campaign “getting at the fish by draining the sea”. This is why countries around the world should open up their eyes and help a country that is going through a genocide. The genocide is occurring in the western region of Sudan. This area is referred to as Darfur. The area consists of about six million people from nearly 100 tribes. Some of them are farmers, others nomads, all of them are Muslim. The bordering countries around Darfur are Libya, Chad, and the Central African Republic. In 1989, General Omar Bashir took control of Sudan by military coup. Soon after conflicts increased between African farmers and many nomadic Arab tribes. The main reason the genocide started is because in 2003, two Darfuri rebel movements were created. The Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement were created to inform the Sudanese government about the marginalization (to put or keep someone in a powerless or unimportant position within a society) of the area and the failure to protect sedentary people from attacks by nomads. This angered the Sudanese government who soon unleashed Arab militias known as Janjaweed, or “devils on horseback”. These militias attacked hundreds of villages throughout Darfur with help from the Sudanese army.. Over 400 villages were completely destroyed and millions of civilians were forced to abandon their homes. All of the thousands of lives taken by the Janjaweed are mostly to be blamed on the Sudanese government. Sudanese President Omar al Bashir is to blame for the massacre that has been created. He allowed The National Islamic Front to inflame regional tensions. This caused a flow of weapons into Darfur