War in Darfur

War in Darfur
Part of the Sudanese Civil Wars
Military situation in Sudan on 6 June 2016. (Darfur on the far left)   Under control of the Sudanese Government and allies   Under control of the Sudan Revolutionary Front and allies   Under control of the Sudanese Awakening Revolutionary Council For a more detailed map of the current military situation in Sudan, see here.
Date 26 February 2003 – 31 August 2020 (16 years, 11 months, 3 weeks and 6 days) Location Darfur, Sudan Result Stalemate Intertwined with the Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile (Until 2020) Comprehensive peace agreement signed with most rebel groups Darfur Peace Agreement
Belligerents
SRF[a] (since 2006) JEM (since 2003) SLA (some factions) (since 2003) LJM (2010–11)[b] SLA (some factions) SARC (from 2014) SLFA (from 2017)[2] SLA-Unity SLMJ JEM (Jali) Supported by:  South Sudan[3]  Chad (2005–2010)[4]  Eritrea (until 2008)[5] Libya (until 2011)[6]  Uganda (until 2015)[7]	Sudan SAF Janjaweed RSF Chadian rebel groups[8] Anti-Gaddafi forces (2011)[9] Supported by:  Libya (since 2011)[10]  China[11]  Iran (until 2016) [12]  Russia[13]  Belarus[14]  Syria (2000s, alleged)[15]	UNAMID (2007–2020)
Commanders and leaders
Ahmed Diraige Khalil Ibrahim † Gibril Ibrahim Abdul Wahid al Nur (SLA-AW) Minni Minnawi (SLA-MM) Musa Hilal (POW)[16] (SARC)	Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Omar al-Bashir (until April 2019)[17] Musa Hilal (until 2017) Hamid Dawai Ali Kushayb Ahmed Haroun (until April 2019)[18][19] Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo Mohammed Nour Abdelkerim[c]	Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi[20] Frank Mushyo Kamanzi[21]
Units involved
SLA SLA-AW[16] SLA-MM[16] SLA-Second Revolution[22] SLA-Unity[23] JEM Gibril Ibrahim faction Abdallah Bishir Jali faction[23]	Sudanese Armed Forces Popular Defence Forces (until April 2019)[24] Rapid Support Forces	No specific units
Strength
SRF: 60,000 JEM: 35,000[25]	SAF: 109,300[d] RSF: 17,500[26] Janjaweed: <25,000	UNAMID: 15,845 soldiers and 3,403 police officers[28]
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown	235 killed as of 31 August 2016[29]
Total killed: 300,000 (UN estimate) 10,000 (Sudanese government estimate)[30] Total displaced: 2,850,000–3,000,000[31] (UN estimate) 450,000 (Sudanese government estimate)
^ Known as the National Redemption Front prior to 2011. ^ Signed the Doha Darfur Peace Agreement in 2011.[1] ^ Although he was a Chadian rebel leader and he was also the head of an insurgent militia, Mohammed Nour Abdelkerim was so close to the Sudanese Armed Forces that he enlisted as an officer in the Popular Defence Forces, while his troops were temporarily organized as a regular pro-government militia. He and his militia left Sudanese service in 2005 in order to take part in the Chadian Civil War (2005–2010).[8] ^ Number does not represent the number of soldiers stationed in Darfur, but the total number of military personnel.[26][27]

War in Darfur
Timeline Genocide International response UNMIS / AMIS / UNAMID ICC investigation Sudanese peace process
Combatants
SLM JEM LJM Janjaweed
Other articles
History of Darfur Bibliography
v t e

The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War,^{[note 1]} was a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting against the government of Sudan, which they accused of oppressing Darfur's non-Arab population.^[33][34] The government responded to attacks by carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur's non-Arabs. This resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the indictment of Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.^[35]

One side of the conflict is mainly composed of the Sudanese military, police, and the Janjaweed, a Sudanese militia group whose members are mostly recruited among Arabized indigenous Africans and a small number of Bedouin of the northern Rizeigat; the majority of other Arab groups in Darfur remained uninvolved.^[36] The other side is made up of rebel groups, notably the SLM/A and the JEM, recruited primarily from the non-Arab Muslim Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit ethnic groups. The African Union and the United Nations also have a joint peacekeeping mission in the region, named UNAMID. Although the Sudanese government publicly denies that it supported the Janjaweed, evidence supports claims that it provided financial assistance and weapons and coordinated joint attacks, many against civilians.^[37][38] Estimates of the number of human casualties range up to several hundred thousand dead, from either combat or starvation and disease. Mass displacements and coercive migrations forced millions into refugee camps or across the border, creating a humanitarian crisis. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell described the situation as a genocide or acts of genocide.^[39]

The Sudanese government and the JEM signed a ceasefire agreement in February 2010, with a tentative agreement to pursue peace. The JEM has the most to gain from the talks and could see semi-autonomy much like South Sudan.^[40] However, talks were disrupted by accusations that the Sudanese army launched raids and air strikes against a village, violating the Tolu agreement. The JEM, the largest rebel group in Darfur, vowed to boycott negotiations.^[41]

The August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, signed by military and civilian representatives during the Sudanese Revolution, requires that a peace process leading to a peace agreement be made in Darfur and other regions of armed conflict in Sudan within the first six months of the 39-month transition period to democratic civilian government.^[42][43]

A comprehensive peace agreement was signed on 31 August 2020 between the Sudanese authorities and several rebel factions to end armed hostilities.^[44]

Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).