SUDAN - During the summer of 2003, television
cameras broadcast images of horror as reporters and
commentators described the carnage and terror affecting
those whose family members had been brutally murdered
and whose homes and entire villages had been completely
burned and destroyed. "Janjaweed" militia backed by the
Sudanese government were on the rampage. More than
30,000 innocent men, women and children died. Over two
million residents of the region of Sudan known as Darfur
have been driven from their homes.
Faced with such misery and suffering, one of the largest humanitarian relief operations was quickly organized to provide basic necessities such as food, water, temporary shelter and medicine. But in the more than three years since these events were first witnessed by the outside world, little has changed. While the names have changed of some of the factions involved in the atrocities which have been unleashed on the people of Darfur, the crisis continues to unfold . . . leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead as a result of
violence and hunger.
At this writing, the Sudanese government continues to bomb villages in Darfur while rebel forces fight a guerrilla war on the ground. The feared "janjaweed" are still around as are an additional groups who have joined the killing on behalf of the government. "Large
areas of Darfur are now off-limits to both aid workers and African Union peacekeepers," explains the Missionaries of Africa's Development of Director, Fr. John Lynch, M. Afr.
"As a result," he continues, "no one knows what exactly is taking place. But from the injuries that we are seeing to groups of unarmed, innocent civilians -- it may be more horrible than we can imagine! Without a doubt, future generations will ask 'why this was allowed to happen?" in a world that holds the power to stop it."
Darfur: Understanding the Tragedy
SUDAN - The three and a half million people living in the Darfur
region of Western Sudan have been victims of conflict since the early
1980s. It was then that the relatively peaceful balance between the
region's ethnic groups began to be destroyed by environmental crises --
such as the spread of the desert and the effects of long-term drought --
and even made worse by the importation of modern weapons. Now as
never before, leaders of the major ethnic groups are engaged in a
struggle for political status -- while failing to tackle the underlying
problems of the desperate need for water and more land for agricultural
purposes.
Until the late 1800s, the
region now known as Darfur
was a collection of small
independent states. At the beginning of the 20th century,
Anglo-Egyptian forces conquered the states and gathered the
states into the country we now call Sudan. The Arabic word
"Dar" means
homeland, and its population of more than three
and a half million men women and children is divided into
several Dars . . . not only of the "Fur" people, as its name
would imply, but also of several other communities,
determined by the means through which they make their living as well as ethnicity.
The Fur people (mostly peasant farmers) occupy the central belt of the region, including Jebel
Marra, one of the richest areas in terms of soil fertility and water
resources. Also in this central zone are the non-Arab Masalit, Berti,
Bargu, Bergid, Tama and Tunjur peoples, who are all sedentary
farmers. "The crisis in Darfur is more than just a clash between Arabs
and non-Arabs," explains Missionary of Africa, Fr. John Lynch. "Those
who are killing are being motivated by greed as well as ethnic hatred.
The militia groups want the land and water resources of the
Darfurians."
"Until they obtain what they want -- innocent men, women and children will continue to be driven from their homes and murdered.," Fr. Lynch continued. "As Missionaries of Africa, we are doing all that we possibly can to support those who have been affected by the
violence in Sudan. But at the same time, I am also hoping that our friends and benefactors will help us reach out to provide relief to those who are suffering -- as well as pray that these hostilities will end."
