For my part of the report on the crisis in Darfur I will be explaining what exactly the crisis is going on in that part of the world. I will be looking at both sides of the conflict to give the rest of the class the opportunity to form their own opinion on the crisis. The conflict started when a group of angry rebels began to bomb certain government targets, claiming that the Darfur region was being neglected by the government because of the regions ethnicity. The rebels claim is that the government is oppressing the black Africans in favor of the Arabs in the region. Also the Janjaweed have been going through that part of Sudan performing the ethnic cleansing of black Africans. Refugees from Darfur say that after air raids by the Sudan government the Janjaweed would ride into the villages on horsebacks and camels. And would proceed to slaughter the men, rape the women and steal whatever they could find. Many women have complained about being kidnapped and held as sex slaves for more than a week and then were released. In light of this; millions of citizens have fled their destroyed villages to camps that are near Darfur’s main towns. But still the Janjaweed still patrol outside the town waiting for any man or woman to wander to far and then will kill the man and rape the woman. Also some of the citizens have fled to the neighboring country of Chad. In total researchers believe that nearly 200,000 people have been killed, but UN officials believe that the number is about 300,000 now.
The governments reaction to these claims has been mixed. The Sudan government has admitted to mobilizing self defence militias following the attacks. The government also denies any link to the ethnic cleansing of the Janjaweed. Recently a UN investigation team sent to the region found that war crimes were being committed, but there was no sign of genocide or the attempt of genocide. The president of sudan claims that he is not in control of the Janjaweed and has been heard calling them gangsters and thieves. After some time and international pressure the Sudan government said that they would disarm the Janjaweed, however there has been little proof of them actually doing this. Peace talks have been initiated by many organizations, but so far these talks have hit many obstacles. Some of the rebel forces have attacked peace envoys and rebel leaders don’t trust that the peace talks are fare.