Darfur

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The three states comprising Darfur within Sudan

Darfur (Arabic: دار فور‎ daar foor, lit. "home of the Fur people") is a region in Sudan. 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 which are coordinated by a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority. Due to the Darfur Conflict, the region has been in a state of humanitarian emergency since 2003.

Street scene in Geneina, capital of West Darfur

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]

1 Geography
2 Government
3 Conflict
4 See also
5 Notes and references

[edit] Geography

Darfur covers an area of some 493,180 square kilometers (190,420 sq mi)^[2] — approximately the size of Spain^[3]^[4]^[5]. It is largely an arid plateau with the Marrah Mountains (Jebel Marra), a range of volcanic peaks rising up to 3,042 meters (9,980 ft) of topographic prominence^[6], in the center of the region. The region's main towns are Al Fashir, Nyala, and Geneina.

The Republic of Sudan is on the south-eastern border of Egypt, and lies on the western shore of the Red Sea. 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.

Remote sensing has detected the imprint of a vast underground lake under Darfur. The potential water deposits are estimated at 19,110 square miles (49,500 km²). The lake, during epochs when the region was more humid, would have contained about 607 cubic miles of water.^[7] It may have dried up thousands of years ago.^[8]

[edit] Government

The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur. The Darfur Agreement established a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority (TDRA) as an interim authority for the region.^[9] The agreement states that a referendum on autonomy for Darfur should be held no later than 2011.^[9] Minni Minnawi is the current Chairperson of the TDRA.

[edit] Conflict

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Scarce natural resources are a cause of fighting among the people of the largely nomadic north of Darfur and the farmers who inhabit the south.

The president of the country, Omar al-Bashir, an Arabic speaking black African, with affiliation to the north, has backed a mercenary group, the Janjaweed, to flush out, by many controversial means, the rebels who operate from the midst of southern farmers.

This conflict has often been erroneously characterized as one between races (Arabs versus blacks), when in reality both sides of the conflict are represented by blacks, with the people of the north being mainly nomads and Arabic speaking, and the people of the south being farmers and non-Arabic speaking.^{[citation needed]} There have been reports of torture, rapes and murders. Some even go so far as amputating limbs of victims as a warning to others. Certain circles have applied the term "genocide".

Many Darfurians have fled to Chad and UN forces are attempting to send food by air, but the Janjaweed have proved to be an obstruction in many instances.

China has been accused of supporting the economy of Sudan, with Omar al-Bashir using some of the money for purchases of weapons, food, vehicles, and whatever else they need to maintain control of the natural resources in Darfur. However China is far from the only nation having an impact on Sudan. India is also an important buyer of Sudanese oil. In 2006, Japan purchased more oil from Sudan than any other single country.[1]