1. Conflict in Darfur, Sudan

2. western Sudan,
Darfur region

3. Present Situation:
Darfur Region of western Sudan: half population is displaced, half the villages are destroyed.
Janjaweet are a militia group hired by Sudanese government to wipe out civilian rebels.
2 million people displaced (highest internal displacement in the world)
Tens of thousands dead from murder and starvation (2 million in need of food)
Refuge camps in western Sudan and neighboring Chad are overflowing
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has called it “genocide”

4. A Complicated History
Environmental factors: Desertification is disrupting land tenure patterns of the pastoralists and farmers in this region.
Socio-economic factors: certain groups are suffering from this desertification
Political factors: conflicts are emerging from feelings of marginalization (being pushed to the outside of society)
Government: Over the last 40 years Islamist organization grew and penetrated the state. In 1989 they engineered a coup and introduced their vision of an Islamic state.

5. Beginning in Spring of 2003 :
3 different African groups in Sudan formed 2 rebel groups.
Government employed Janjaweet militia to wipe out the rebels, with freedom to use any means.
Janjaweet are Arabs holding racist ideology. They believe Arabs are rightful owners of land in Darfur and the African people should be driven out.
Their tactics: murder, rape, burning villages, stealing cattle and camels, poisoning water supply

6. Our Family : This is a series from the BBC on people’s daily lives
Our Family : This is a series from the BBC on people’s daily lives. Kaltoom Hamid Aseel (left) tells of her life in Kalma refugee camp in Darfur in western Sudan.
I am 27. My three children are sick with diarrhoea. We live in one hut with my sisters, Neimad (right), and Mona.
Neimad has two children. There are eight of us. My husband is dead. Neimad’s husband was taken away. We have not seen him in months.

7. We used to live well before we came to this place
We used to live well before we came to this place. Our village was Mukja. We had to leave on 25 April when the Janjaweed (pro-government militias) attacked us.
The village had 7,000 goats, 1,000 donkeys, 2,000 camels and 3,000 horses and many thousands of chickens.
They took the men away, and then we heard shots. The women stayed. The Janjaweed said: "Why do you stay? We killed your men." Later I went to where the shots came from and found my husband’s body.

8. This is my son Mossab, six, (left) and Neimad’s son Modessel, four.
A small cut on Modessel’s right ankle grows larger all the time.
There is very little for the children to do at the camp.

9. The water is filled with waste run-off and is unfit for swimming, let alone drinking.
However, the heat and boredom of camp life mean the children cannot be stopped from diving into the pools of muck and water brought by the Sahara’s seasonal rains.

10. We fetch water several times each day.
I will use it to make porridge.
All we eat is porridge.

11. Females are the heads of most households in the Darfur camps
Females are the heads of most households in the Darfur camps. Most of the men are in hiding or were killed.
Here, a group of men from the Kalma Camp set off for the town of Nyala in search of part-time farm work.

12. The family’s hut provided by the camp
The family’s hut provided by the camp. The women decide to build another hut for the family.

13. Neimad takes her six-month-old daughter, Mozzemel, to a Kalma health clinic to treat the child’s diarrhoea.
She is given a packet of oral rehydration salts because the child has become severely dehydrated.

14. Neimad has been working to complete the hut while I nurse my daughter, Ietmad.
We are happy that we will be living next to the new clinic.
(The clinic, recently built by the International Rescue Committee, opened on 30 August).

15. It’s time to collect the groceries
It’s time to collect the groceries. Families from Kalma Camp line up for food delivered by relief agencies.
Despite the relief, there is a large measure of shame among a people who once were completely self-sufficient.
Photos: Mark Fritz, International Rescue Committee

16. Benefits and Consequences for Sudanese Government
Government’s use of Janjaweet has been successful in eroding rebels’ ability to conduct military attacks by destroying their civilian support.
However, the plan has also backfired because so many young people have lost family members that they are now dedicated to fighting the government and the Janjaweet. Young children are becoming rebels.
U.N. Security Council has been unsuccessful in getting Sudanese government to stop the attacks. The situation has been called the worst genocide since Rwanda in 1994 but little has been done.