Nearly nine million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and reports indicate that around 4,000 people have been targeted and killed because of their ethnicity.
There are now concerns that Darfur is returning to the years of brutal fighting and escalating atrocities of two decades ago, which left some 300,000 people dead and millions more displaced.
What is happening in Darfur now? Here’s what you need to know about the conflict.
What is the historical context?
The name ‘Darfur’ is derived from ‘dar fur’, which means ‘the land of the fur’ in Arabic. The Fur tribe once ruled the Islamic sultanate of Darfur until the 1916 assassination of Darfur’s last sultan. Today, Darfur is home to approximately 80 tribes and ethnic groups, which include both nomadic and sedentary communities.
Although tribal and ethnic conflicts are not uncommon, the situation escalated in 2003 when rebels, notably the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), took up arms against the Sudanese government and protested the unequal distribution of the economic resources. .
The conflict pitted Sudanese government forces, backed by the allied militia known as the Janjaweed, against rebel groups opposing the autocratic rule of former President Omar al-Bashir.
The result was a devastating toll on Darfur. About 300,000 people were killed and millions were displaced, including 400,000 refugees forced to flee to camps in neighboring Chad.
In response to these atrocities, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for several senior Sudanese officials, including Omar al-Bashir, on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
Is history repeating itself in Darfur?
Although Darfur has seen intermittent periods of reduced violence in recent years, especially during the period when the joint UN African Union mission UNAMID operated in the restive region, the situation took a drastic turn with the outbreak of conflict in April 2023 between the paramilitary forces. Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces.
Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Africa, said in a speech to the Security Council in November that hostilities had “increased” and that Sudan was “facing a convergence of a worsening humanitarian disaster and a catastrophic human rights crisis’.
Escalating violence in Sudan’s Darfur region has raised fears that atrocities committed two decades ago could be repeated.
![A boy walks in the Al Salaam camp for displaced persons in North Darfur. A boy walks in the Al Salaam camp for displaced persons in North Darfur.](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/Collections/Embargoed/07-12-2023_WFP_Sudan.jpg/image1170x530cropped.jpg)
© WFP/Leni Kinzli
A boy walks in the Al Salaam camp for displaced persons in North Darfur.
UNHC has expressed alarm over reports of continued sexual violence, torture, arbitrary killings, extortion of civilians and targeting of specific ethnic groups.
Hundreds of people have been killed in ethnically motivated attacks by RSF and affiliated militias in West Darfur, according to the UN human rights chief.
“Such developments reflect a horrific past that must not be repeated,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said, marking “months of pointless suffering, death, loss and destruction.”
In July, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor launched an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the region, following the discovery of mass graves of some 87 members of the Masalit ethnic community, allegedly murdered by the RSF and affiliated militia.
![The African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) patrols Shangil Tobaya in North Darfur, Sudan in 2020. The African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) patrols Shangil Tobaya in North Darfur, Sudan in 2020.](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/Libraries/Production%20Library/08-12-2020_UNAMID_motorcade.jpg/image1170x530cropped.jpg)
A Photo/Olivier Chassot
The African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) patrols Shangil Tobaya in North Darfur, Sudan in 2020.
Do the people in Darfur get any help from the UN?
In the past, the United Nations had a strong presence in Darfur through UNAMID, which was established by the Security Council in July 2007. Its mandate included protecting civilians and facilitating the delivery of humanitarian assistance by the UN and other aid agencies.
UNAMID ended its operation on December 31, 2020, and the Government of Sudan took over responsibility for protecting civilians in the region. It followed a landmark peace deal reached between Sudanese authorities and two armed groups in Darfur.
A UN political mission known as UNITAMS was subsequently established to support Sudan during its political transition to democratic rule for an initial period of twelve months. That support included the establishment of the Permanent Armistice Commission (PCC), which was crucial for implementing the Darfur leg of the October 2020 Juba Peace Agreement and preventing a recurrence of the political conflict in Darfur.
In December 2023, the UN Security Council decided to end UNITAMS’ mandate and begin phasing out its activities over a three-month period ending on February 29, 2024.
Worryingly, the UN Joint Office on Human Rights has recently received credible reports of the existence of at least thirteen mass graves in El Geneina in western Darfur and surrounding areas, following the attacks by the RSF and Arab militias on citizens. majority of these citizens from the Massalit community. These acts, if verified, could constitute war crimes.
![Children draw in a UNICEF-supported child-friendly space in a camp in South Darfur, Sudan, for people displaced by the conflict. Children draw in a UNICEF-supported child-friendly space in a camp in South Darfur, Sudan, for people displaced by the conflict.](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/Collections/Embargoed/16-10-2023-UNICEF-South-Darfur-Sudan.jpg/image1170x530cropped.jpg)
© UNICEF/Adriana Zehbrauskas
Children draw in a UNICEF-supported child-friendly space in a camp in South Darfur, Sudan, for people displaced by the conflict.
But what about now?
The UN says it is particularly concerned about conditions in Darfur, where babies are dying in hospitals, children and mothers are suffering from severe malnutrition and camps for displaced people have been burned to the ground.
The UN’s Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee told the Security Council that “sexual and gender-based violence continues, with allegations of sexual violence by Rapid Support Forces personnel, and rape and sexual harassment involving the Sudanese Armed Forces.”
Is help provided?
UN humanitarian agencies left Darfur when the April 2023 conflict broke out and many of their facilities were looted or destroyed. Some have returned occasionally to provide humanitarian assistance when the security situation allows.
In November, UN partners were able to reach Central Darfur in a road convoy that took five days, bringing medical supplies from Kosti, White Nile State, for the first time since fighting broke out.
And the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported the arrival of the first cross-border aid supporting 185,000 people from Chad to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.
Many aid workers have been killed in Darfur, while others work under extremely difficult conditions to support civilians there.
OCHA says Sudan represents the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, but its response plan is only 33 percent funded. The humanitarian agency said that without more support “thousands of people will die.”