90 days of Sudan strife: Country saw decade’s displacement in just 10 weeks

  • July 17, 2023
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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90 days of Sudan strife: Country saw decade’s displacement in just 10 weeks

Subject :IR

Section: Places in news

Context:

  • Some 2,231,523 internal displacements have been recorded in Sudan (as of June 28, 2023), since conflict erupted in one of Africa’s biggest countries on April 15, 2023, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), an international Geneva-based non-profit.

National rather than ethnic:

Modern Sudanese history has been replete with inter-ethnic conflicts.

In 2022, displacements were on in Blue Nile state due to conflicts between the Hausa and the Funj tribes.

There were displacements in West Darfur state, linked to disputes over land and resources between Arab and non-Arab ethnic groups.

In contrast, the conflict since April 2023 is national in scope. The fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in multiple locations across Sudan has resulted in millions of internal and cross-border displacements.

Fighting initially took place in cities across Northern and Khartoum states, later spreading across the Darfur and Kordofan states.

The current conflict has reignited ethnic disputes in West Darfur.

The Darfur region, comprising West Darfur, South Darfur, Central Darfur and North Darfur, lies in the west of Sudan and has been in a state of permanent humanitarian emergency since February 2003.

The state’s capital, El Geneina, has seen the most severe level of conflict and violence outside of Khartoum.

Darfur Region:

  • Darfur is a region of western Sudan. Darfur covers an area of 493,180 square kilometers, approximately the size of mainland Spain.
  • Most of the region consists of a semi-arid plain and thus appears unsuitable for developing a large and complex civilization.
  • The White and Blue Niles merge at Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.
  • Sudan’s relationship with Ethiopia in particular has been strained over disputed farmland along their border, over conflict in the Tigray region that drove tens of thousands of refugees into Sudan, and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Division of Sudan:

  • The Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile in the early 2010s between the Army of Sudan and the Sudan Revolutionary Front started as a dispute over the oil-rich region of Abyei in the months leading up to South Sudanese independence in 2011.
  • South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011, following 98.83% support for independence in a January 2011 referendum.

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC):

  • The IDMC is the world’s leading source of data and analysis on internal displacement.
  • Since its establishment in 1998 as part of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), they have offered a rigorous, independent and trusted service to the international community.
  • Mission:
    • To provide high-quality data, analysis and expertise on internal displacement with the aim of informing policy and operational decisions that can reduce the risk of future displacement and improve the lives of internally displaced people (IDP) worldwide.
90 days of Sudan strife: Country saw decade’s displacement in just 10 weeks IR