Darfur Genocide and how people faced it

Joann Soto

10 A

5/29/13

 Have you ever wanted to live in a place full of destruction? With everyone wanting to kill your kind even though you have done nothing wrong? That’s the definition of a genocide, The deliberate killing of a large group of people, esp. those of a particular ethnic group or nation.  The Darfur genocide is among many other genocides that have happened throughout world history. The Darfur genocide had only lasted more than 3 years but it killed more than 400,000 people.  And for what purpose? The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) first started attacking the government targets in early 2003, accusing Khartoum (the capital of Sudan) of oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs. Darfur, which means land of the Fur, faced many years of stress over land and grazing rights between the Arabs, and farmers from the Fur, Massaleet and Zaghawa communities. And how did the government respond to the rebellion? It admits to activating "self-defense militias" following rebel attacks. But denies any links to the Arab Janjaweed militia - who are accused of trying to drive out black Africans from large swathes of territory. How could we stop this? What has anyone done to try help? How have the darfurians survived?( Source: graphicfacilitation.blogs.com)

To show you of all the horrible things have take place in Darfur here are a few facts.In Sudan’s western Darfur region, a massive campaign of of ethnic violence has claimed the lives of more than 70,000 civilians and uprooted an estimated 1.8 million more since February 2003. The death toll in Darfur is higher than the previously estimated. Several times the number was estimated to be around 70,000 that have died altogether, with the number rising every day. ( Haggan and Pallino Deaths in Darfur )Over a million people are now displaced as a result of the killing. (Haggan and Pallino Deaths in Darfur. ) All of this brings a lot of suffering for the darfurians. Families were killed, friends were killed, and even children were killed. In spring of 2005 there was a lower estimate of 63000 to 146000 excess deaths. Refugees from the genocide say air raids by government aircraft would be followed by attacks from the Janjaweed, who would ride into villages on horses and camels, slaughtering men, raping women and stealing whatever they could find.(bbc.com).

(Source: www.hmbfilm.org)

The Darfur conflict has lasted more than 3 years, and in an actual sense some deaths would be expected. I think that three years is a really long time for a genocide. Also After reading Darfur diaries, which talks about the lives of Darfurian people. I have read about the many lives of human beings who have little to nothing to live on but still managed to keep going. I find this book very inspiring to me because if this had happened in the U.S I wouldn’t know what to do. But reading the stories of how people like  Ibrahim, who was sixteen years old from furawiya  where he saw Arab people riding horses and burning houses and killing people  then, taking all their stuff. How many people were killed and many ran away. He was all alone until later finding a friend. He slept in a cave that night with him and then left in the morning after finding a village who gave them food and water. After four days in the mountains and caves they found the SLA and have been in the army for about a month.(Marlowe, Bain,and Shapiro,Darfur Diaries) This story is among many other stories about people who even though they suffered and even though they had nothing to eat or drink they found their way and were able to do things like joining the army or helping other refugees to help in the Darfur genocide.