- Attention-getting device: 400,000 people have died. 2. 3 million people have fled their homes and communities and now live in IDP’s. 200,000 are now living in refugee camps in neighboring Chad. How many more will die before this genocide stops? Who knows.
- Signifgant statement: The citizens of Darfur have been dealing with this genocide crisis since 2003 and it doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.
- Quotation: According to savedarfur. org accessed on June 28, 2007, “After decades of neglect, drought, oppression and small-scale conflicts in Darfur, two rebel groups – the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) – mounted a challenge to Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir”.
- Thesis: The conflict in Darfur is a serious problem mirroring the same aspects of the Holocaust that needs to be stopped as soon as possible.
- I will first discuss what is happening in Darfur, then what caused this genocide to happen, and what you can do to help without going to Darfur.
The Darfur conflict is a crisis occuring in the Darfur section of western Sudan between two groups causing havoc to the citizens of this nation.
According to their. org accessed on June 28 2007, “Darfur is roughly the size of Texas, where violent conflict has driven more than 2 million people from their homes. ” That means if this genocide was happening in Texas, it would only be a few states away from us and rapidly spreading towards us. Because of the size of Darfur, the conflict is causing the fighting to exceed into Sudan’s neighboring country Chad. ii. With the expansion of the conflict this shows that the problem is not getting better but getting worse.
There are two major groups that are fighting each other in Darfur and causing this massive Genocide. According to Janjaweed. com accessed on June 28, 2007, “the government and the militias, known as the ‘Janjaweed,’ (men on horseback) of systematically starving refugees under their control. ”
- The Janjaweed have been accused of keeping 7 million Sudanese citizens hostage for ten years now denying the refugees of all of their human rights.
- The Sudanese Government, while publicly denying that it supports the Janjaweed, has provided money and assistance to the militia and has participated in joint attacks targeting the tribes from which the rebels draw support.
- This is a problem because it shows how this genocide is going to keep progressing with the help of the Sudanese government which can bring great power to the Janjaweed rebels.
The other side comprises a variety of rebel groups, notably the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, recruited primarily from the land-tilling Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups. While each of these groups have different ethinic backgrounds, they still want the same thing. However they can not reach an understanding with all of the different cultures that this group englufs. [Transition- Now that we know what is happening in Darfur I am going to explain what caused this]
Two major things are causing the crisis in Darfur. These two major things are environmental issues and conflicting political views. It all started with the Nile River Area when other members of the area receieved more money from the British then other areas of Sudan. In 2003, the two militia groups began to accuse the government of oppressing non-arabs. This led to the Arab culture vs. the African culture.
Global warming along with the environment is the other factor that contributed to the start of the Darfur Genocide According to seedmagazine. com, “Desertification and increasingly regular drought cycles in Darfur have diminished the availability of water, livestock and arable land”. Scientists think that this desertification was caused by global warming. This has caused a divide in tribes from fertile land and not ertile land.
The government has got involved with the drought issues and has chosen a side. According to sudansaaesmd. com accessed June 28, 2007, “As the ability of local communities to cope with drought and famine declined over the last two decades, and the capacity of their traditional systems of conflict mediation over rapidly diminishing resources became overwhelmed, opportunistic politicians took advantage of the situation. ” Politicians did not want to help their country but instead saw the devastation as a way to make money.
With the lack of reliable and loyal government officials Sudan began to plummet into the crisis we are faced with today. [Transition- Now that we know what caused this Genocide we are going to discuss what you can do to help out.
