International Crisis Group
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1. The current situation
2. What should be done
3. Crisis Group analysis
4. Current information on the humanitarian situation
5. News and other reporting
6. International and local NGOs working on Darfur
7. Important documents
8. What you can do

Photo: Village in North Darfur, November 2004. Finbarr O'Reilly/REUTERS.


updated March 2009

1. The Current Situation

The Darfur conflict has changed radically in the past two years. While there are fewer deaths than during the high period of fighting in 2003-2004, the conflict has mutated, the parties have splintered, and the confrontations have multiplied. Violence again increased in 2008 while access for humanitarian agencies became more difficult. International peacekeeping is not yet effective and a political settlement remains far off.

Attacks by both government and rebel forces continued throughout the entire 2008, including major aerial bombardments and ground attacks launched by the government in West Darfur in February 2008. In turn, an assault on Khartoum by Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels in mid-May 2008 left at least 200 dead and was a milestone in the Darfur conflict, constituting the first military strike on the capital since 30 years. An attack by government troops on an IDP camp in Kalma, southern Darfur in August 2008 killed more than 30 IDPs and drew widespread international condemnation.

Meanwhile the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in Khartoum continued to deny the gravity of the situation and pursue destructive policies in Darfur. At the same time it has continued to resist key provisions in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the North-South war, thus triggering a crisis in that process, with heavy fighting between government and southern troops paralysing oil-rich Abyei in June 2008.

The 14 July request by the ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo for an arrest warrant against President Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur precipitated a redoubling of international pressure on Khartoum to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis, including efforts initiated by the Arab League in late 2008 to bring the the government and different rebel groups together for peace talks in Qatar. In spite of rhetoric from Khartoum emphasizing that it is serious about peace talks, including a November 2008 “Sudan People’s Initiative”, government and rebel attacks have continued.

The NCP wants Darfur in chaos to limit the room for an opposition to emerge, while resettling key allies on cleared land and defying Security Council resolutions by integrating its Janjaweed irregulars into official security structures instead of disarming them. Rebel signatories of the May 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), particularly the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Minni Minawi (SLA/MM), have been responsible for attacks on civilians, humanitarians, the AU mission (AMIS) and some of the violence in the internally displaced person (IDP) camps. Their leaders have been given government jobs and land and, as ardent supporters of the status quo and without a clearly defined role in the new negotiations, are potential spoilers. Rebel movements that did not sign the DPA have further splintered. As they divide along tribal lines, their messages become more fragmented and less representative of constituencies they claim to speak for.

The IDP camps are increasingly violent, with residents manipulated by all sides while Khartoum also tries to force them to return to unsafe areas. Inter-Arab dissension has added new volatility to the situation on the ground. Some tribes are trying to solidify land claims as the UN/AU hybrid peacekeeping operation in Darfur (UNAMID) establishes itself. This has led to fighting with other Arab tribes, which have realized the NCP is not a reliable guarantor of their long-term interests and have started to take protection into their own hands. There is now a high risk of an Arab insurgency, as well as potential for alliances with the predominantly non-Arab rebel groups. A spillover of the conflict into Kordofan has also started.

The May 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement was a failure, too limited in scope and signatories. Those who signed – the government and a few rebel factions – hurt the peace process. After a highly publicised opening ceremony in Sirte, Libya, on 27 October 2007, new peace talks were put on hold. A new joint AU/UN mediator, former Foreign Minister of Burkina Faso Djibrill Bassolé, was appointed in June 2008, and the Arab League in September 2008 initiated a new effort to resolve the crisis with peace talks in Qatar.

The new realities emphasise the necessity of broadening participation in the peace talks to associate the full range of actors and constituencies involved in the conflict, including its primary victims, such as women, but also Arab tribes. Incorporating broader and more representative voices can help remedy the uneven weight the process now gives the NCP and rebel factions. Core issues that drive the conflict, among them land tenure and use, including grazing rights, and the role and reform of local government and administrative structures, were not addressed in the DPA but left to the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation process that was supposed to follow the negotiations. They need to be on the agenda of any new negotiations if an eventual agreement is to gain the wide support the DPA has lacked.

UNAMID began deploying on 31 December 2007. The mission has faced difficulties in its first months, including staff shortages, and seven peacekeepers were killed in an attack on 9 July 2008. It continues to face troop and equipment shortages, and a number of its peacekeepers were killed in attacks during 2008 UNAMID must build upon lessons learned from its predecessor AMIS, including being more pro-active in protecting civilians and responding to ceasefire violations. Its leadership should also engage actively in the peace talks so as to ensure coherence between what is agreed and its capabilities. The international community must give it more support than it did AMIS, including strong responses, with sanctions as necessary, to further non-compliance by any party, as well as to actions that obstruct the peace process or violate international humanitarian law.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on 27 April 2007 against a government minister, Ahmed Harun, and a Janjaweed commander, Ali Kushayb for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Since then, the regime has refused to hand them over for prosecution. On 14 July 2008, the ICC Prosecutor made an application for a warrant of arrest for Sudanese President Omar Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The 4 March 2009 decision by the the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue a warrant of arrest for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur is a welcome and crucial step towards challenging the impunity that has worsened conflict in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan. The Sudanese government must exercise restraint in its response to the decision, and ensure that its actions do not undermine the opportunity to achieve peace in Sudan. It must also take genuine steps to transform the political institutions and policies that drive conflict in Sudan. The response by the Sudanese people, their government, the region and the international community will help determine whether this is the beginning of genuine democratic transformation in Sudan, or whether Bashir’s regime, including the army and other security services, will continue on their destructive path.

For a brief history of the conflicts in Sudan, please click here.

For Crisis Group’s most recent report on the Darfur conflict in full – Darfur's New Security Reality, Africa Report N°134, 26 November 2007 – please click here.

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2. What should be done

General recommendations

A number of the core issues that drive the conflict, such as land tenure, grazing rights and use, and local government's role, were not resolved in the DPA but need to be part of new talks, with broader participation.

UNAMID must be more pro-active in protecting civilians and responding to ceasefire violations. The international community must provide UNAMID with full support, including tougher political responses to further non-compliance by any party. The UN Security Council must:

  • apply punitive measures to any party obstructing the negotiations, UNAMID activities or the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC), or violating the arms embargo or international humanitarian law.
  • provide, together with states party to the Rome Statute of the ICC and others, full and effective support to the Court to continue work in Darfur and increase pressure on Sudan to cooperate with the Court and turn over the individuals for whom arrest warrants have been issued thus far.

For Crisis Group's last reporting on the region, Sudan: Justice, Peace and the ICC, please click here.

For Crisis Group’s 4 March 2009 extended statement on the ICC indictment of Bashir for crimes against humanity and war crimes, The ICC Indictment of Bashir: A Turning Point for Sudan?, please click here.

For Crisis Group's 14 July 2008 statement on the ICC Prosecutor's application for an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, Opportunities and Risks for Peace in Sudan, please click here. 

For Crisis Group's most recent commentary on the role of the ICC in Darfur, see Nick Grono and Fabienne Hara's 25 July op-ed on allAfrica.com, "Security Council Should Make President Meet Benchmarks", Nick Grono's 16 July op-ed in the Boston Globe, "Justice in Sudan Not the Same as Peace", and Caroline Flintoft's 16 June op-ed in the Globe and Mail, "Our Silence on Sudan Shames Us".

For Crisis Group's 14 July 2008 statement on the ICC Prosecutor's application for an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, Opportunities and Risks for Peace in Sudan, please click here. 

See the arrest warrants of the ICC for Ahmed Harun [PDF] and Ali Kushayb [PDF] and the report of the ICC Prosecutor [PDF] to the UN Security Council.

Other recent commentary

For Crisis Group's most recent commentary on the situation in Darfur, see the list of op-eds below on this page.

Gareth Evans and Human Rights Watch's Executive Director Kenneth Roth renewed the call for extending sanctions in a joint press release issued on 13 December 2006: "Darfur Demands Sanctions, Not Words". An op-ed published in March 2007 furthers the case for sanctions: "Darfur Needs More Than Words".

Also in 2007, Crisis Group Co-Chair Chris Patten and Board Members Joschka Fischer and Pat Cox wrote a series of commentary articles for newspapers across Europe, highlighting the need for stiffer EU sanctions against Khartoum.

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3. Crisis Group analysis

Crisis Group recent reports

For other reports on Sudan, please visit our Sudan country page.

Recent articles and opinion pieces by Crisis Group

For Crisis Group's analysis of Arab media coverage of the Darfur Crisis, click here. For a month by month report on the conflicts in Sudan since September 2003, check Crisis Group's CrisisWatch database.

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4. Current information on the humanitarian situation

The humanitarian situation remains catastrophic, due to ongoing state-sponsored violence, layers of aid obstruction, the lack of an overall humanitarian strategic plan, and the weakened state of displaced Sudanese. Refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), a disproportionate number of them women, are in terribly weakened states, subject to sexual abuse and without adequate shelter. The numbers of at-risk civilians continue to increase. And as need far outstrips the ability of agencies to deliver aid, and access is restricted due to instability, localised famine is feared.

The Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan publishes weekly roundups of the situation in Darfur and more frequent sitreps. Click on the following links to access the reports:

Other reports

Further information and reports on the humanitarian situation can be found at:

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5. News and other reporting

For Crisis Group's analysis of Arab media coverage of the Darfur Crisis, click here.
 
Crisis Group presents here a never before shown Arabic-language documentary (with English subtitles) filmed by the Al-Arabiya Channel, entitled "Jihad on Horseback". The documentary contains testimonies from Darfur refugees residing in camps in both Chad and Sudan, interviews with Janjaweed leader Mussa Hilal, government officials and rebel leaders.
 
Click here to see the film.

To order a DVD copy of the documentary send us an e-mail with your name and address. Please let us know if you want the Arabic version or the one subtitled in English.

Recent television and radio reporting on the situation in Darfur

Major sources with regular reports and RSS feeds

Blogs and Dedicated Darfur News Sites

Reports by other organisations on Sudan

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6. International and local NGOs working on Darfur

The following is a non-exhaustive list of organisations working on Darfur issues in a campaigning, advocacy or other policy-related capacity. See here for a list of humanitarian aid agencies working in the region.

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7. Important documents

For a more complete list of important documents, please click here.

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8. What you can do

Contact your elected representative - Write a letter or email to advise your elected representative of your views of the Darfur crisis. A selection of countries with links to their governing institutions and contact details are listed here.

Write to your newspaper - Write a letter to the editor of your national newspaper urging your support for increased international engagement in Darfur. A selection of international newspapers is listed here, with email addresses to their letters pages.

Post a blog comment – Share your opinion about the situation in Darfur on a weblog (or blog).  You can post a comment of your own to raise awareness about Darfur or contribute to an ongoing discussion about the conflict.  You can write directly to the author of the blog or the blog itself.  Click here for a list of blogs that include commentary on international issues.

Tell a colleague - Email your friends and colleagues about the conflict. Click here to go to our "tell a colleague" page. Insert a message, or copy our message at the top of this page and email it. The more people who are aware of deteriorating situation in Darfur, the better our ability to get the international community to respond.

Inform yourself about the crisis - Read Crisis Group's publications and other reporting on Sudan, details of which are set out below.

Donate to organisations working in Sudan - A selection of aid and humanitarian organisations working in Sudan is listed here with links to their websites, where you can donate to their efforts to deal with the humanitarian problems in Sudan. The list is not exhaustive, and is not intended as an endorsement of any particular organisation. You are of course also very welcome to make a donation to our own International Crisis Group: we are an analysis and advocacy organisation rather than an aid-delivery one, but we depend  very much on public support, as well as grants from governments and foundations, to carry on our work of conflict prevention and resolution.  For more information about what Crisis Group has been doing, click here.

See also this recent op-ed on what you can do to make a difference in Darfur:


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