Conflict In Darfur

With reference to one recent major international conflict, analyse and assess the geographical impacts of the conflict on the area(s) involved. Darfur is in the desert region of located in the far west of Sudan, the biggest country in Africa. Darfur, meaning ‘land of the Fur’ is separated into three regions: North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur. The North of Darfur was home to the Arabs whereas the South was home to the Blacks. Since the British left in 1956, Darfur has faced many years of tension over land and grazing rights between the mostly nomadic Arabs, and the black African farmers. In 1989 An Arab leader called Omar al-Bashir came to power in a coup and tried to remove the African presence in Darfur. The Sudan Liberation Army
Over 200,000 have fled abroad, mainly to Chad where they will face further violence as they will be refugees and more susceptible to the crime. 90 per cent of the villages of Darfur targeted ethnic groups have been destroyed as the Arabs were trying to get rid of the Africans. Also 3.5 million people are dependent on international humanitarian assistance. For that amount of people to depend on international help is a problem because if the other nations can’t provide then those people will suffer and not have a very good quality of life. However Darfur has the biggest humanitarian operation in the world. There are currently 14,000 aid workers. The economic impacts are that Darfur spent a lot of money on military weapons and so now the country struggle for basic resources. It is seen that in 2004 Darfur spent $1,352.71 on military weapons which especially went to the Janjaweed to help them fight against the rebel groups, in particular the SLA and
Also people were forced to cut downs trees in the forest to help supply materials for the building industry and this led to deforestation. The country suffered when crops couldn’t grow as it meant they were losing money as well as a resource for living so this had a long term effect. In 2006 a Darfur Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi was signed. The agreement was signed by only one rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement, and rejected by the Justice and Equality Movement resulting in a continuation of the conflict. The agreement includes provisions for wealth sharing and power sharing and established a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority to help administer Darfur until a referendum could be held on the future of the region. The leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Minni Minnawi, was appointed Senior Assistant to the President of Sudan and Chairman of the transitional authority in 2007. In my opinion president Bashir is to blame as he could have done more to stop this conflict but he