20 years since war began in Sudan’s Darfur, suffering continues Headings
By Story Agencies, February 27, 2023At least half a million people remain in displacement camps in Darfur, two decades after a bloody conflict broke out between the Arab-dominated Sudanese government and rebel groups.
For many among the displaced, there is no home to return to. Some have had their villages burned to the ground, others say their homes are now occupied by Arab invaders who took them over.
Conditions are difficult in the camps, with malnourishment rampant and international agencies forced to cut down on their aid due to funding constraints.
The war in Darfur has historical roots in years of marginalisation of non-Arab tribes by Khartoum’s policies, leading to long discontent. Matters escalated on February 26, 2003, when a newly-formed group calling itself the Darfur Liberation Front (DLF) – later renamed the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) – publicly claimed an attack on Golo, the main town in the district of Jebel Marra.
This rebel group and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) launched a rebellion to protest the Sudanese government’s disregard for the western region and its non-Arab population, and seek power-sharing within the Arab-ruled Sudanese state.
In response, the government of then-President Omar al-Bashir equipped and supported Arab militias known as Janjaweed to fight the rebels in Darfur.
Referring to themselves as Popular Defence Forces, they worked alongside Sudanese government forces to systematically kill the African Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups, from which the members of the rebel groups were drawn.