Explained | The tribal clash that killed over 200 in Darfur and its link to Sudan’s ethnic conflict
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Why has Darfur been the site of ethnic conflict and what is the current socio-political situation in Sudan?

April 28, 2022 04:21 pm | Updated 04:21 pm IST

An internally displaced Sudanese family outside their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan April 26, 2019.

An internally displaced Sudanese family outside their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan April 26, 2019. | Photo Credit: Reuters

The story so far: Violent clashes on Sunday, April 24, left more than 200 people dead and 103 injured in the West Darfur province of Sudan, the region’s provincial Governor, Khamis Abdullah Abakar, said on Tuesday, April 26.

Most of the deaths took place in Kreinik town in Darfur, which was stormed by a large group of heavily armed individuals, reportedly belonging to the Janjaweed militia, who looted, torched houses, and killed people. The hours-long clashes then extended to Geneina, the capital of West Darfur.

Why did the clashes take place?

The Kreinik town in West Darfur is largely populated by those belonging to the non-Arab Masalit tribe, who are traditionally farmers. Two other tribes, Fur and Zaghawa are also referred to as non-Arab. There’s a history of rivalry between the Arab tribes and communities, who have traditionally been favoured by Sudanese administrations of the colonial and post-colonial period, and those tribes who are called non-Arab but are some of the early inhabitants of the region. The recent clashes between Arab herdsmen and Masalit farmers have been rooted in the scarcity of resources like water and grazing lands in the region. In December last year, similar tribal fighting in Kreinik had left 88 dead. Clashes also took place in January, March, and early April, resulting in several deaths.

On Thursday, April 21, two men from the Arab herding (nomadic) community were killed by unidentified assailants. On Friday, armed tribesmen attacked Masalit villages in retaliation, with the clashes leaving eight people dead. The main attacks in Kreinik took place on Sunday, reportedly carried out by the Janjaweed Militia, which the former President of the country Omar-al-Bashir is believed to have recruited from Arab herding tribes.

The heavily armed attackers reportedly arrived on trucks and looted and torched homes in Kreinik. The clashes on Sunday alone killed at least 168 people and wounded 98, according to Adam Regal, the spokesperson for the local aid group General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said government buildings, a police station and Kreinik’s sole hospital were targeted and burned down on Sunday.

According to the Guardian, by Monday, the fighting had spread to West Darfur’s Capital Geneina, 80 kilometres away from Kreinik, where the main hospital, treating the wounded from Friday and Sunday, was attacked. Members of the state-backed Rapid Control Forces (RSF) clashed with local militia called the Sudanese Coalition Forces, headed by the provincial governor of West Darfur. While the RSF, headed by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo or ‘Hemeti’, who is also believed to be the de facto deputy leader of Sudan, includes most of the Janjaweed militia, the Sudanese Coalition Forces, are the only local militia in Kreinik who have some support from the Masalits.

How are they linked to Sudan's long-standing ethnic conflict?

Sudan is the third-largest country in Africa, and before separating from South Sudan over a decade ago, was the largest. It is situated in northeastern Africa and got independence from colonial rule in 1956. It was originally inhabited by the Nubians and by an indigenous population. It saw migrations from the Arab Peninsula between the 7th and 16th centuries, with the Arabs gradually integrating Islam and the Arabic language into the social fabric of Sudan, or Arabising the northern Sudanese. It is because of this history of Sudan that historians have called the distinction between African and Arab identities in the region fluid and not rigid.

During the colonial rule, regions in western Sudan, especially Darfur, and other parts of Sudan faced neglect and were underdeveloped, as the British focused on developing the riverine Nile Vally region in Central Sudan, where Khartum, the capital of the country, is situated. The colonial rule is believed to have favoured the elite Arab population in the central region, with the same trend being followed in the post-colonial regimes in Sudan, which emphasised the Arab identity of Sudan, neglecting other ethnic and cultural identities such as those of African origins. It is important to note, however, that both Arabs and non-Arabs outside of Khartum faced marginalisation before and after colonial rule.

The Darfur civil war

The longstanding neglect and the divide in resource allocation and development between regions and communities resulted in a civil war in Darfur in 2003. The Jebel Moon or Jebal Marrah mountains, the greenest pastures of West Darfur, also saw Arab migrations from the neighbouring country of Chad, during a drought in the region in the 1980s.

Rebel groups, largely formed of people from the Masalit, Fur, and Zaghawa communities or non-Arabs, launched a rebellion against former President Omar al-Bashir’s regime, which responded with bombings, attacks, and air raids by the military, and unleashed on the communities the Janjaweed militias, mostly composed of Arab tribesmen.

Janjaweed is known to have carried out the then government’s scorched earth campaign, torching and looting villages, and also being accused of carrying out large scale killings and sexual violence in Darfur.

The U.N. called the Darfur crisis “the worst humanitarian crisis” of the 21st century, pegging the death toll between 2003 to 2008 at over 3,50,000. It is estimated that the Darfur conflict displaced over 2,00,000 people, who fled the region or now stay in camps inside it.

Both former President Omar al-Bashir and former Janjaweed commander Ali Kushayb have been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague, Netherlands, for committing war crimes. While Mr. Bashir, whose regime fell in 2019, reportedly remains under Sudanese custody, Mr. Kushayb surrendered to the court in June 2020 but has denied the charges against him.

Mr. Bashir has been accused by the ICC of committing “murder, genocide, war crimes, rape” and other “crimes against humanity” in Darfur between 2003 and 2008. The ICC also said in its ruling that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that Omar al-Bashir acted with specific intent to destroy in part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups."

While clashes still took place in Darfur after 2008, the recent string of tribal clashes and militia attacks have led to a large number of deaths and displacements once again. Aid groups say that violence led nearly 4,30,000 people to be displaced in 2021 alone.

What is the current political situation in the country?

In 2019, after ruling Sudan for 30 years, Mr. Bashir stepped down amid widespread unrest that started in 2018 over the country’s economic crisis and popular dissatisfaction with the regime. The military, led by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, overthrew Mr. Bashir’s government and formed a transition council to take charge of the country. The army faced popular protest, eventually agreeing to share power with a civilian administration.

In 2019, the civilian leader proposed by the pro-democracy civil society movement, Abdalla Hamdok, became Sudan’s Prime Minister after the formation of a Sovereignty Council. The council was an 11-member body comprising military and civilian leaders, that replaced the military-led transition council. In 2020, during the Sovereignty Council’s rule, Sudan entered into a peace deal with multiple rebel groups that formed during the civil war. The same year, the joint peacekeeping mission of the African Union and the UN deployed in Sudan for years, withdrew its personnel as the tenure of the mission expired.

As per the power-sharing agreement, Mr. Hamdok would oversee day-to-day administrative affairs, and the military chief Mr. Burhan would head the Sovereignty Council for two years, before passing the transitional leadership to the civilian administration. This was supposed to happen in 2021, while national elections to vote for a fresh civilian government were to take place in late 2022. However, the military in a coup in October 2021, overthrew Mr. Hamdok and disbanded the Sovereignty Council. Amid protests, it struck a deal with Mr. Hamdok and reinstated him two weeks later, but the protesters rejected Mr. Hamdok’s deal with the army, calling him a “traitor”.

The latest bouts of tribal fighting and attacks reportedly committed by Janjaweed cast doubts over the military leaders’ capability of bringing security to conflict-hit Darfur.

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