The Sudan-Darfur conflict has been a major political, economic, and humanitarian crisis for the past two decades. It has been going on and off since 2003 and is threatening the peace and lives of regular people. However, the conflict has been a result of the civil wars led on the territory even before Sudan gained independence from the UK in 1956, the first civil war beginning a year prior.
The second civil war which started in 1983 created the perfect opportunity for the then-officer Omar Al-Bashir to begin his power scheme. After seizing power in a bloodless military coup on June 30th, 1989, he officially became President on the 16th of October 1993. Bashir established an authoritarian regime, dissolving the parliament, banning the existence of political parties, and implementing Sharia law.
To understand the impact and devastating effects of the conflict from a humanitarian perspective, the historical and ethnic background of the Darfur region is crucial. Darfur is a Western region of Sudan, and it is populated by many ethnic people groups, all of them Muslims. This diversity has existed for long - inner migration and interracial marriage contributed even more to the racial diversity of the region. Because of the ethnic diversity in Darfur, the division between the people groups has long existed, even if we take into consideration the aforementioned factors that cause ethnic diversity. In recent years, the ruling party of the region has declared a superior Arab descent, marginalizing and ostracizing non-Arab African Muslims. However, the conflict is more nuanced than Arab versus non-Arab Muslims' mutual hatred and separation.
A major for Sudan and the political scene event in February 2003 uproots the conflict in the region and the country. The rebels, as they are referred to, protested against the Sudanese government regarding its neglect and abuse all over Sudan. While the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) were sent to the South, Bashir took a different approach towards the Darfur region. The group which we now know as the Janjaweed was comprised of smaller nomadic tribes primarily coming from the areas around Sudan’s border with Chad. The Janjaweed helped the government against rebels in the Darfur region, namely the Darfur Liberation Front (DLF), later renamed the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which were also involved in the liberation movements of South Sudan. However, Janjaweed overstepped in its aims.
The militia fought the rebels and suppressed the protests, which relieved some tension. On the other hand, the soldiers started terrorizing civilians in the area and preventing international organizations from delivering food and medical supplies to the region. The situation deteriorated further when Bashir decided to send the SAF to help the Janjaweed. The attacks classify as an ethnic cleansing towards the non-Arab ethnic groups. The leader of the SAF has officially been accused of crimes against humanity in the region. Despite a cease-fire in 2004 brokered by the African Union, the UN, and the US, and the presence of boots on the ground by the African Union, by 2007, 300,00 civilians were murdered, and 2.5 million were displaced in other regions and neighboring countries.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) started an investigation in June 2005 following the events which happened in Darfur from the 1st of July onward. On July 31, 2007, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) authorized a joint peacekeeping mission with the African Union. In 2008, the prosecutor of the ICC alleged Omar Al-Bashir as president of Sudan responsible for the crisis in Darfur. The allegations include genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The prosecutor sought a warrant for the arrest of Al-Bashir in 2008, and in 2009, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against the then-president on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and one year later - on charges of genocide. The arrest warrant became a historic event, as it was the first time the ICC issued it against a still-ruling leader. However, that hadn't managed to decrease Al-Bashir's popularity in the country, as he won the presidential elections in April 2010 with 68 percent of the vote. These were the first multiparty elections since Al-Bashir banned the existence of political parties in the late 80s. In 2013, under the administration of the National Intelligence and Security Service, the same militia which fought in Darfur (Janjaweed) was transformed into Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The political background and support from the state significantly increased their power.
Fast forward to 2019, the commander of the RSF is General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (also known as Hemedti), still commander of the RSF in 2023. On February 22, 2019, Al-Bashir declared a country-wide state of emergency. He had been losing power since December of the previous year. During the Sudanese political crisis, the people protested against the government, but the military government demolished the protests using the RSF as they did in previous years. On April 11, 2019, the military (the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)) overthrew Al-Bashir and arrested him. The military suspended the constitution, overthrew the government, and planned to establish a military council. On June 3, 2019, the Khartoum massacre occurred, and the RSF carried it, employed by the military junta, killing over 100 demonstrators.
The military regime was still present. On October 25, 2021, another military coup, led by Al-Burhan, leader of SAF, and other military officials took place. Hamdok and the military ministers got arrested, a state of emergency was declared, and Burhan pledged to hold democratic elections in July 2023. The military promised the protesters to democratize the country. Later in 2021, Hamdok was reinstated via an agreement while continuing to have ties with the military and resigned in early 2022. In 2022, negotiations for a civilian government led over the year, but Burhan’s forces and the RSF’s tensions continued to grow, and Burhan tried to merge the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF. He proposed this condition in December 2022, when the junta gave an official promise to step down and hand the governing of the country to the civilians.
These events all lead to the most current exchanges of fire in Sudan. On April 15, 2023, tensions built-up between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF exploded after a stalemate, and rival military conflict erupted, killing 25 people. Today, the military conflict continues, killing even more people and having more (over half a million) displaced from their homes over the 20 years of on-and-off attacks and pillaging.
While the war between the two leaders is escalating each day, third-party actors, such as the UAE, KSA, China, EU, Egypt, and Russia (and that’s only mentioning a few) are all looking out for their interests in the country. This is based on the geopolitical importance of Sudan. To begin with, it is the home of more than 60% of the Nile River Basin. Its east border is also located on the Red Sea, more specifically the Suez Canal, where more than 10% of global trade passes through. And finally, while South Sudan took the oil reserves, Sudan still has an abundance of mineral and gold resources. Both Burhan and Hemedti have extensive business ties to all the aforementioned countries and many more.
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