2. Topics:
• History of Conflict
• Darfur Conflict
• Genocide
• Naivasha Agreement
• Southern Sudanese Independence
Referendum
3. History of Conflict
• General Omar al-Bashir, and the National Islamic
Front headed by Dr. Hassan al-Turabi, overthrew
the Sudanese government led by Ahmed al-
Mirghani in 1989.
• Non-Arab ethnicities in the region, became
increasingly marginalized.
• Primary reason for the conflict can be attributed
to the concentration of the Arab/Muslim
Sudanese in the North and the Non-Arab/Muslim
“African” Sudanese in the south.
4. History of Conflict
• Northern intellectuals look at Southerners as
'tribes-men', while refer the Northerners as
'people‘.
• To persuade Arab Sudanese to join militias, the
old Sudanese ideas of racial superiority between
the north and the south were deployed.
• Southerners were characterized as abid [slaves].
• Blacks in Sudan are seen as inferior to the Arabs.
5. Darfur Conflict
• On-going guerrilla conflict centered in the
Darfur region of Sudan.
• Began in February 2003
• The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A)
and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) groups
in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese
government of oppressing or committing
genocide.
• Stiff resistance from official Sudanese military
and police, and the Janjaweed, a
Sudanese militia group.
6. Darfur Conflict
Sudan Liberation Movement/Army:
• Founded as the Darfur Liberation Front
• Founded by members of three indigenous
ethnic groups in Darfur, the Fur,
the Zaghawa and the Masalit.
• 2006 the SLM had divided into two groups,
one led by al Nur of the Fur and the other, far
larger, led by Minnawi of the Zaghawa.
7. Darfur Conflict
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM):
• led by Khalil Ibrahim
• Khalil Ibrahim, was one of the authors of the Black Book, a
manuscript published in 2000 that details the structural
inequality in the country
• January 2006: the JEM declared a merger with the SLM/A,
along with other rebel groups, to form the Alliance of
Revolutionary Forces of West Sudan.
• October 2007: the JEM attacked the Defra oilfield
• May 2008: JEM attacked the Sudanese capital of Khartoum
• February 2010: JEM signed a truce with Sudan's
government.
8. Darfur Conflict
Janjaweed:
• armed partisans drawn from Arab tribes that
became notorious for massacre, rape, forced
displacement and torture in 1990 and from 2001-
2005
• 1990s, the Janjaweed were Arab partisans,
tolerated by the Sudan Government, who
pursued local agendas of controlling land.
• 1999-2000, faced with threats of insurgencies in
Western and Northern Darfur, Khartoum’s
security armed the Janjaweed forces.
9. Genocide
• September 2004, the World Health
Organization estimated there had been 50,000
deaths in Darfur since the beginning of the
conflict.
• updated estimate in October 2004 put the
figure to 70,000.
• It is estimated that nearly 400,000 people died
between the period of 2005-2010.
10. Naivasha Agreement
• Also known as Comprehensive Peace Agreement
(or CPA)
• Signed between the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement (SPLM) and the Government of Sudan
in January 2005
• Meant to end the Second Sudanese Civil War,
develop democratic governance countrywide and
share oil revenues.
• It further set a timetable by which Southern
Sudan would have a referendum on its
independence.
11. Southern Sudanese Independence
Referendum
• Took place in Southern Sudan from 9 January to 15
January 2011.
• January 2011, preliminary results indicated a landslide
of 98.8% voting in favor of independence.
• Ballots suspended in 10 of the 79 counties for
exceeding 100% of the voter turnout.
• The number of votes are still be well over the
requirement of 60% of voters voting for independence.
• Predetermined date for the creation of an independent
state is July 9, 2011.
