Overview: Sudan

Sudan is Africa’s largest country and has been at war with only a brief reprieve (1971-1982) since

its independence from Great Britain in 1956. With power centralized in the north around its capital

Khartoum and natural resources concentrated in the South, Sudan is further divided by religion,

ethnicity, tribal differences, and economic disparities. Lasting over two decades, the second civil

war between the North and South resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2 million people and

displaced 4 million others. An on-going conflict in the western region of Darfur was marked by a

period of intensive, systematic targeting of the civilian populations from the Fur, Zaghawa, and

Masaalit ethnic groups. In 2004, the Museum issued a genocide emergency in response to this

violence.

Today, Sudan’s entire civilian population faces enormous threats from continuing and potentially

new violence. The country’s future is at stake with an upcoming referendum on southern

independence (2011), as stipulated in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the

civil war in 2005. With continued disputes over borders and resources, in addition to the challenges

of creating new political systems in both the north and the south, the prospect of separation is

seeded with potential sources of conflict. This major political event will take place amid ongoing

conflict in Darfur, sporadic incidents of violence in the South, uncertainty about the status of key

transitional regions between the north and south, and rumblings of discontent in the east. Half of

Darfur’s six million people are dependent on a precarious international aid effort, as displacement

and insecurity continue.

The Museum’s warning for Sudan stems from the Sudanese government’s established capacity and

willingness to commit genocide and related crimes against humanity. This is evidenced by actions

the government has taken in the western region of Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and the South that

include:

• Use of mass starvation and mass forcible displacement as a weapon of destruction;

• Pattern of obstructing humanitarian aid;

• Harassment of internally displaced persons;

• Bombing of hospitals, clinics, schools, and other civilian sites;

• Use of rape as a weapon against targeted groups;

• Employing a divide-to-destroy strategy of pitting ethnic groups against each other, with enormous

loss of civilian life;

• Training and supporting ethnic militias who commit atrocities;

• Destroying indigenous cultures;

• Enslavement of women and children by government-support militias;

• Impeding and failing to fully implement peace agreements.

While rebel groups in the south and Darfur have also committed abuses, the Sudanese

government, led by Omar Al-Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for

war crimes and crimes against humanity, bears primary responsibility for atrocities against and

continued danger to civilians.

Warning Signs

An entrenched ruling elite

Since independence in 1956, Sudan’s ruling class has justified its power with an ideology that

favors the Arabic-speaking and Arabized elite in the capital Khartoum over populations from the

nation's more culturally, religiously, and linguistically diverse regions. While often described as a

country split along a north-south axis, which contains some truth, the concentration of power and

wealth is divided between the center and peripheries.

War between the north and south (1955 – 1972)

From 1924-1956, the British had treated the north and south as two separate entities. The first

Sudanese civil war (1955-1972) erupted on the eve of independence, prompted by angry

southerners who had been promised and then denied regional autonomy. The fighting resulted in

the death of half a million people, mostly civilians, and forced hundreds of thousands to flee from

their homes. In 1972, the Addis Ababa Agreement negotiated peace between the Southern Sudan

Liberation Movement and Khartoum. The peace deal included power-sharing agreements, security

guarantees, and political and economic autonomy for the South.

A military coup and intensified fighting (1989 – 2005)

In an attempt to quiet critics in the north and consolidate his power, Sudanese President Jaafar al-

Nimieri introduced new legal measures in 1983 that abolished southern governing autonomy.

Nimieri returned power to Khartoum, declared Arabic the official language, and imposed Sharia law

over the entire country. In response, southerners mobilized around the Sudanese People's

Liberation Army (SPLA), led by Dr. John Garang. Rather than fight for southern independence, the

SPLA posited that Sudan needed to be transformed into a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious,

and multi-ethnic state.

An elected government failed to resolve the conflict, as Islamists gained the upper hand. On June

30, 1989, Brigadier General Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir came to power in a military coup at the

head of a National Islamist Front (NIF) government. The NIF intensified the war with the South.

Armed conflict in the west (2003 – present)

When the western region of Darfur experienced increasingly violent internal disputes over access to

land and power in the 1990s, the Sudanese government responded by rewarding and arming local

leaders who shared its ideology. Just as a negotiated agreement ended the war between the north

and south, fighting began in Darfur when men from the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit ethnic groups

created the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and attacked a government airfield on April 25, 2003.

Another rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), joined the fight against the

Sudanese government armed forces.

In response to the April 2003 rebel attack, the Sudanese government began recruiting local militias

and transforming them into semi-regularized forces known as the Janjaweed. These militias had

personal interests in gaining access to land inhabited by civilians from the same groups as the

rebels: Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit.

Acts of Violence

The Sudanese government led by Omer al- Bashir and the National Islamist Front (NIF) has

governed over war in the south and west. The conflicts produced several peaks of violence against

civilians: militia raids into Bahr al Ghazal, 1986-89; the Nuba Mountains jihad of 1992; the oilfields

clearances of the late 1990s; and genocide in Darfur 2003 – 2005.

In the south, the primary victims were the Dinka and Nuer peoples and the Nuba in central Sudan.

Fighting in 1991-92 between factions of the SPLA also caused significant civilian losses and

displacement. In Darfur, the primary victims were the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit.

In both the south and west, the Sudanese government established a pattern of assaults against

civilians, killing, torturing, raping and displacing millions. Additionally, its forces have destroyed

entire villages, food and water supplies, and other non-military targets. It has used a divide-to-

destroy strategy that pits ethnic groups against each other, while arming and supporting local

militias.

In the South, the government tolerated the taking of slaves, along with other booty, by Arab tribal

militias that raided villages in the south and the Nuba Mountains. It also used religion to spur

violence, justifying the persecution of and attacks against Christians, followers of indigenous

religions, and Muslims who rejected the government's extreme form of Islam. In Darfur, it has used

ethnicity to increase and justify violence.

The Sudanese government used starvation as a weapon. It attacked civilian food production and

supplies, then obstructed international relief. This strategy decimated the Nuba people of central

Sudan. In 1998, the government and its proxies were the primary agents of a famine in southern

Sudan, which endangered millions and killed tens of thousands, mostly Dinka. The consequences of

the government's actions were, however, worsened by food diversion by the rebel Sudan People's

Liberation Army (SPLA) and some local chiefs. In Darfur, the government’s forced displacement and

obstruction of aid resulted in the deaths of at least 200,000 people between 2003-2005. The

government has also obstructed aid to vulnerable populations in response to international

pressures.

Targeted civilian populations have been forcibly displaced by the government throughout the

country. In the south, this practice accelerated when oil was discovered under key contested areas.

In Darfur, at least 2.5 million people remain displaced and vulnerable to further government

manipulations. Reliant on inadequate supplies of international aid, this displaced population is

unable to return home because of on-going conflict.

Responses

Responses varied to the war in the South and to genocide and conflict in Darfur.

Prosecutions

On March 31, 2005, the UN Security Council referred the case of Darfur, Sudan, to the International

Criminal Court (ICC), a permanent court created in 1998 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against

humanity, and genocide. On March 4, 2009, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced its

historic decision to issue an arrest warrant charging Sudanese President Bashir with five counts of

crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes for his leadership role in orchestrating the

conflict in Darfur.

To the war in the South

Policy

The international policy responses to the conflict in Sudan (1985-2005) varied greatly over the

twenty years of the conflict, affected by the Cold War, multiple conflicts and regime changes in

neighboring countries, and other shifting geopolitical and economic interests. The governments of

neighboring Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt, Libya, Chad, Uganda, and Kenya all played significant roles.

Key players among the broader international community included the U.S., UK, Islamic nations, and

China. Sudan's support for Iraq during the first Gulf War and various radical Islamist movements

(including hosting Osama Bin Laden from 1992-1996) resulted in increased isolation from western

countries. In 1993, the U.S. placed Sudan on its list of state sponsors of terrorism and imposed

sanctions in 1997.

A peace process for southern Sudan, sponsored by the regional Intergovernmental Authority on

Development and mediated by Kenyan General Lazaro Sumbeiywo, gained momentum with the

signing of a framework for peace in July 2002 by the Government of Sudan and the SPLM. The

United States, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom increased their engagement

in the peace process after 2001. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed by the

government and the SPLM on January 9, 2005. It ended the two-decade war and established

parameters for a new unified government.

Aid

Beginning in April 1989, Operation Lifeline Sudan was set up following a devastating famine in

Southern Sudan - the result of drought and the civil war - which killed an estimated 250,000 people

in 1988. The consortium included three United Nations agencies, UNICEF, the World Food

Programme and 40 non-governmental organizations. Although it saved countless lives, the system

was manipulated by both sides in the war, which limited access to suffering refugees and siphoned

off aid.

Armed Force

Following the signing of the CPA, the UN Security Council authorized the establishment of the

United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) for a period of seven years. Deployed across Sudan, the

10,000-strong peacekeeping force was unable to prevent a recurrence of fighting between the

government army and SPLA soldiers in oil-rich Abyei on the North-South border.

To genocide and conflict in Darfur

With mounting pressure from public advocacy groups a wide array of measures was deployed in

response to violence in Darfur.

Sounding Alarms

Print journalists played a central role in bringing the story of violence in Darfur to the general public

early in 2004. Bolstered by public interest, editors kept reporters on the scene in Darfur and their

stories on the pages of major newspapers.

Policy

In September 2004, the U.S. government declared the conflict in Darfur a "genocide." While the

United Nations, the African Union, and the European Union disagreed that genocide had occurred,

they all accused the Sudanese government and its allied militias of committing crimes against

humanity.

The African Union, of which Sudan is a member, has pressured the Sudanese government and

Darfurian rebel movements to allow humanitarian access to civilians and to negotiate a peaceful

solution.

Aid

Most of the deaths in Darfur resulted from malnutrition and exposure after civilians were forcibly

displaced into the harsh desert environment. A massive aid effort that began in 2003 saved

countless lives and stemmed the death toll. As the conflict continued, however, humanitarian aid

workers themselves increasingly became targets of violence.

Armed Force

As part of a 2004 agreement between the Sudanese government and the Darfurian rebels, the

African Union (AU) sent in soldiers mandated to protect unarmed ceasefire monitors. The ceasefire

was not honored and, when civilians came under attack, AU soldiers often were not present or

provided limited protection.

On December 31, 2007, after protracted negotiations with the Sudanese government, the AU and

the United Nations formed a joint force with a stronger mandate to protect civilians, but

undermanned and ill-equipped, its presence has been inadequate to change the situation on the

ground.