Darfur: A Cause that Needs Change
February 29, 2008 by txhistoryteach
For hundreds of years Darfur thrived as an independent sultanate which had economic ties to surrounding countries and the Mediterranean. In 1917 Britain added Darfur to the Republic of Sudan which caused a small amount of upper-class ethnic groups to attain most government power (Arabs, mostly).
Constant neglect resulting in a stagnant government for southern Sudan caused several civil wars. In January 2003 the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was passed, but was too late to assuage the frustration from decades of economic repression. Rebel groups began their fight for freedom with an attack on a government air force base in El Fasher in February 2003.
The government of Sudan has sent non-Arab ethnic groups so as to end the rebel attacks. Tactics used within the past four years include rape, torture, indiscriminate aerial bombings, burning of villages, and the use of child soldiers. Thousands of innocent people of all ages are being murdered (about 15,000 a month) and thousands others are starving to death due to the destruction of livestock and farms.
The AU has sent in only about 7,000 inexperienced soldiers simply to oversee the disaster occurring in Darfur. The UN has promised 26,000 strong troops to protect civilians, but as of mid-January of this year, only about 9,000 soldiers have entered Darfur. The amount of help being offered to Darfur is proportionally minute compared to the level of atrocities being committed on a daily basis.
Altogether about 2.6 million lives have been inexplicably altered, ruined, and ended. Crimes against humanity are being committed on a colossal scale that cannot and must not be ignored any longer. It is the moral and ethical responsibility of the American people and International community to step into Darfur and end these massacres.
–Jeffersonian
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