Brutality and death envelop the African nation of Sudan. Its relatively brief history of independence has led to what the United Nations describes as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises in Sudan’s western Darfur region. (Reuters.) The country’s infamous president, Omar al-Bashir, is the only sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for his role in the genocide in Darfur. In southern Sudan, another crisis has erupted over the border region with the new nation of South Sudan.

 

To understand the turmoil, it is necessary to briefly review Sudan’s history. Within present-day Sudan, the Blue Nile and While Nile join to form the Nile, which flows into Egypt. Because of the waterways, Sudan and Egypt have intermittently lived under the same rule since the time of the Pharaohs. (CIA.) Both Christian and Muslim religions dominated the cultures in the area at times. (Britannica 24305.) After the Suez Canal opened in 1969, linking the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea, Great Britain fought other European colonists to take control of the region. (Britannica 24316.) Sudan's centuries of association with Egypt and more recent association with Great Britain formally ended in 1956, when Sudan gained independence. (BBC.)

 

Since then, conflict has plagued the country. Christian and Animist people of the south have struggled against the rule by the Arab Muslim north. (BBC.) The northerners tried to unify Sudan it along the lines of Arabism and Islam despite the existence and opposition of the non-Muslim southerners, and the marginalized peoples in the West and East. (Watch; Houston.)

 

In addition to religious strife, the sharing of oil revenues has created economic tensions between the north and south. (BBC; Houston.) Two long civil wars between those regions cost the lives of an estimated 1.5 million to 2 million people. (BBC; Watch.) Additionally, an estimated 4.5 million to 5.2 million people have been forced to leave their homes, including nearly 2 million in the western region of Darfur. (BBC; Watch.) There alone, approximately 300,000 have been killed, and an estimated 100 die each day now. (BBC; Watch.)

 

Sudan split into two countries in July 2011 after the people of the south voted for independence. (BBC.) However, the border dispute and killing continues. (Watch.) The Sudanese government has bombed targets across the border in the new independent nation, including refugee camps housing civilians fleeing violence in the southern Sudan (Watch.) Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese live in refugee camps beyond the country’s borders as well. (Watch.)

 

Sudan was considered the largest humanitarian operation on Earth. In 2009 alone, foreign governments and international agencies provided $1.3 billion in humanitarian assistance. (Watch.) That same year, the Sudanese government under al-Bashir expelled the 13 largest international humanitarian aid organizations from Sudan and dissolved three national organizations in apparent retaliation for the International Criminal Court’s issuance of an arrest warrant for President al-Bashir – wanted on ten counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. (Watch.)

 

The United Nations estimates that 500,000 people in the border regions presently are in dire need of humanitarian aid. (Watch.)

 

Conflict in Darfur

In 2003, rebels in Darfur accused the government of neglecting the region, and the government responded with a brutal counter-insurgency campaign. (Reuters.) The government unleashed Arab militias known as Janjaweed, or “devils on horseback.” Sudanese forces and Janjaweed militia attacked hundreds of villages throughout Darfur. (Watch; United.) In the ongoing genocide, non-Arab African farmers and others in Darfur continue to be systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed. (BBC; Watch.)

 

The genocide in Darfur has claimed between 300,000 and 400,000 lives and displaced over 2 million. (Watch; United.) More than one hundred people continue to die each day; five thousand die every month. The majority of displaced persons live in squalid camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad. (Reuters.) The Sudanese government disputes these estimates and denies any connection with the Janjaweed. (Watch.)

 

Although the fighting has fallen from levels seen in 2003 and 2004, violence still displaces large numbers of people. Fighting is now broader and includes clashes between Arab tribes, between the army and rebel groups, and between rebel factions. Civilians from both Arab and non-Arab groups have been displaced. (Reuters.)

 

In 2009 and 2010, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for President al-Bashir for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur. (Reuters.) Initially, other nations refused to have Al-Bashir arrested when he entered their countries, but more recently, Malawi, South Africa, Kenya and Zambia have refused to host the Sudanese leader, cancelling proposed trips or inviting alternate Sudanese officials. (Dranginis.) Regardless, al-Bashir, the only sitting head of state indicted for genocide, continues to rule Sudan. (Dranginis.)

 

In 2007, a combined United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force began deploying in Sudan. But despite its presence, atrocities against the peoples of Darfur continue.

South Sudan

The war between northern and southern Sudan went on for more than 20 years and killed an estimated 2 million civilians. (Watch; Kushkush.) The government conducted a systematic scorched-earth campaign to destroy Christian populations living in oil-rich territories, considered Sudan’s first genocide. (Watch.) It is estimated that as many as 200,000 Southern Sudanese and Nuba tribe children and women were taken into slavery, mainly to northern Sudan, during raids on southern Sudanese towns and villages. (Watch; Kushkush.)

 

In 2011, South Sudan became a separate nation, but the killing along the border continues today, as the Sudan government in Khartoum). The killing continues today, as Khartoum is believed to be carrying out atrocities against non-Muslim tribes in and around the Abeyi area. Meanwhile, South Sudan has deteriorated into chaos, with atrocities being committed by both government and rebel forces (Kushkush). In 2010, the CIA issued a warning that "over the next five years … a new mass killing or genocide is most likely to occur in southern Sudan." (CIA.) The prediction appears to have become true.