Darfur

 

(där'fūr) , region and former sultanate, W Sudan. The region is mountainous, dominated by the central massif of Jebel Marra, which rises to 10,130 ft (3,088 m). Much of the terrain is dry plateau, and there are sand dunes in the extreme north. The region is divided into the states of North, West, and South Darfur. The Fur (for whom the area is named) and the Baggara are the major ethnic groups. Darfur's economy is based on subsistence agriculture. Cattle, sheep, and goats are raised in the north.

The rulers of Cush, which fell c.A.D. 350, may have established a dynasty in Darfur. Christian kingdoms emerged in the period between 900 and 1200, but they were destroyed by Muslim incursions from Kanem in the mid-13th cent. Fur, a major kingdom probably founded in the 15th cent., pushed aside the Kanem rulers in the 17th cent. Fur was conquered by the Egyptians in 1874 and by the Mahdists (see Mahdi) of Sudan in 1883. With the fall of the Mahdist state in 1898, Darfur became a semiautonomous sultanate under Anglo-Egyptian suzerainty. The sultan attempted to expel the foreign colonizers during World War I, but his forces were defeated by the British in 1916, and Darfur was incorporated into Sudan.

Since 2003 the region has been scene of fighting, with Sudanese government forces and their allied Arab militias (the janjaweed) battling non-Arab rebels linked to an opposition party, but the conflict has gradually widened to include fighting between allied groups on both sides, as both rebels and militias have splintered. Warfare also has spilled over into Chad, and Chadian rebels have based themselves in parts of Darfur. An estimated 50,000 persons have died in the fighting, and another 150,000 have died from disease, hunger, and other causes, and the government and janjaweed have been accused by some of genocide. Some 2.2 million people have been made refugees, and attempts to establish a cease-fire have produced only temporary results.

Darfur (Arabic: دار فور, lit. "home of the Fur") is a region of far western Sudan, bordering the Central African Republic, Libya, and Chad. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur. Darfur is currently in the midst of an armed conflict and resulting humanitarian emergency.

Geography and climate

Darfur covers an area of some 493,180 km² (196,555 miles²)—just over 90% the size of France and 87% as large as Kenya. It is largely an arid plateau with the Marrah Mountains (Jebel Marra), a range of volcanic peaks rising up to 3000 m (10,100 ft), in the center of the region. The region's main towns are Al Fashir, Nyala, and Geneina

There are four main features of the physical geography. The whole eastern half of Darfur is covered with plains and low hills of sandy soils, known as goz, and sandstone hills. In many places the goz is waterless and can only be inhabited where there are water reservoirs or deep boreholes. While dry, goz may also support rich pasture and arable land. To the north the goz is overtaken by the desert sands of the Sahara. A second feature are the wadis, which range from seasonal watercourses that flood only occasionally during the wet season to large wadis that flood for most of the rains and flow from western Darfur hundreds of miles west to Lake Chad. Many wadis have pans of alluvium with rich soil that are also difficult to cultivate. Western Darfur is dominated by the third feature, basement rock, sometimes covered with a thin layer of sandy soil. Basement rock is too infertile to be farmed, but provides sporadic forest cover that can be grazed by animals. The fourth and final feature are the Marrah Mountains, volcanic plugs created by a massif, that rise up to a peak at Deriba crater where there is a small area of temperate climate, high rainfall and permanent springs of water.

The rainy season is from June through September, transforming much of the region from dusty brown to verdant green. As much of the population of Darfur is agricultural, the rains are vital. In normal years, pearl millet, a mainstay crop is ready to be harvested by November. Once harvested, the dry stalks may be fed to domestic livestock. In the far northern desert, years may pass between rainfall. In the far south, annual average rainfall is 700 mm and many trees remain green year-round.^[1]

Remote sensing has detected the imprint of a vast underground lake under Darfur. The potential water deposits are estimated at 19,110 square miles. The lake, during epochs when the region was more humid, would have contained about 607 cubic miles of water.^[2] It may have dried up thousands of years ago.^[3]

History

Main article: History of Darfur

See also: Darfur conflict

Darfur is conjectured to have been part of the Urheimat of the Proto-Afro-Asiatic language in distant prehistoric times (c. 10000 BC), though there are numerous other theories that exclude Darfur.

The early history of Darfur is dominated by the influence of the Jebal Marrah. Most of the region is semi-arid plain and cannot support a large and complex civilization, while the Marrah Mountains offer plentiful water. The Daju people created the first known Darfurian civilization based in the mountains, though they left no records besides a list of kings. The Tunjur displaced the Daju in the fourteenth century and introduced Islam. The Tunjur sultans intermarried with the Fur and sultan M. Solaiman (reigned c.1596 to c.1637) is considered the founder of the Keira dynasty. Darfur became a great power of the Sahel under the Keira dynasty, expanding its borders as far east as the Atbarah River and attracting immigrants from Bornu and Bagirmi. During the mid-18th century the country was wracked by conflict between rival factions, and external war with Sennar and Wadai. In 1875, the weakened kingdom was destroyed by the Egyptian government (itself under British colonization) set up in Khartoum, largely through the machinations of Sebehr Rahma, a businessman who was competing with the dar over access to slaves and ivory in Bahr el Ghazal to the south of Darfur.

The Darfurians were restive under Egyptian rule, but were no more predisposed to accept the rule of the self proclaimed Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, when his forces defeated the British in Darfur in 1883. When Ahmad's successor, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, himself a Darfuri, demanded that the pastoralist tribes provide soldiers, several tribes rose up in revolt. Following the overthrow of Abdallahi at Omdurman in 1898 by a British force, the new Anglo-Egyptian government recognized Ali Dinar as the sultan of Darfur and largely left the dar to its own affairs except for a nominal annual tribute. During the First World War, the British became concerned that the sultanate might fall under the influence of Ottoman Empire, invaded and incorporated Darfur into Sudan in 1916. Under colonial rule, financial and administrative resources were directed to the tribes of central Sudan near Khartoum to the detriment of the outlying regions such as Darfur.

This pattern of skewed development continued following national independence in 1956. To this was added an element of political instability caused by the proxy wars between Sudan, Libya and Chad. The influence of an ideology of Arab supremacy propagated by Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi that began to be acted upon by Darfurians, including those identified as "Arab" and "African". A famine in the mid-1980s disrupted many societal structures and led to the first significant fighting amongst Darfuris. A low level conflict continued for the next 15 years, with the government coopting and arming "Arab" militias against its enemies. The fighting reached a peak in 2003 with the beginning of the Darfur conflict, in which the resistance coalesced into a roughly cohesive rebel movement. The conflict soon came to be regarded as one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world. Over 2.5 million people have been displaced, many into camps where emergency aid has created conditions that, although extremely basic, are better than in the villages, where there are over 3.5 million people.

See also

• Darfur conflict
• History of Darfur
• Sudan

External links

• Google Darfur Documentary released in 2007 filmed in Eastern Chad Villages and Darfurian Refugee Camps
• Eyes On Darfur Up-to-date satellite images of Darfur with noticeable destruction of villages.
• Crisis Guide: Darfur Council on Foreign Relations
• 24hoursfordarfur.org -- A unique video-based advocacy and education campaign to raise awareness about the conflict in Darfur and pressure elected officials to take action.
• Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting "Our Choice, Too: On the Edge in Darfur" (Video)
• British Red Cross-Darfur Crisis Appeal Give to the Darfur Crisis Appeal
• Oxfam's 18 year old youth ambassador travels to Darfur Video about an 18 year olds journey to Darfur.
• Commentary
• Save Darfur UK-based campaign website run by LDYS, a political youth movement.
• Darfur's Peace Process Council on Foreign Relations
• Sudan’s U.S. Ambassador Says Darfur Crisis Exaggerated Council on Foreign Relations
• Lute: Hybrid Peacekeeping Force in Darfur an ‘Unprecedented’ Operation Council on Foreign Relations

Notes and references

Coordinates: 13°00′N, 25°00′E

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