Abstract

Like other areas of the Sudanese periphery, Darfur has suffered decades of neglect at the hands of the State. Policies of discrimination exacerbate the effects of poverty, declining land and water resources, and mounting insecurity and ethnic tensions. In early 2003, two new rebel groups started attacking government facilities in Darfur. In response, the government armed Arab militias, the Janjaweed, to raid and massacre non-Arab communities. In Northern Darfur, the attacks amounted to a counterinsurgency campaign, but in the fertile areas of Western Darfur, Janjaweed violence is motivated by land. The State-sponsored violence has triggered an acute humanitarian crisis, yet the main short-term problem is the protection of civilian populations. In the long term, the people of Darfur say that peace requires the Sudanese State to reestablish a working police force, a reliable judiciary, an independent native administration, and minimal investment in basic services.Victor Tanner is a Research Fellow, and teach at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, in Washington, D.C.