Students With A View

Darfur lies in the western region of Sudan, and its area is the size of Texas.

The genocide in Darfur would be like a country the size of Texas being wiped out, and the Darfurians consist of about 6 million people. Roughly 400,000 have died since 2003 when the genocide started. That’s BIG.  The UN has failed at helping them. The genocide will not come to a halt until someone helps out.

The genocide began from militias in Sudan that wanted all non-Arab Africans out of Darfur, which is the majority of the Darfur population.  The Janjaweed are the main militia, and they are considered the mercenaries of Sudan. The Janjaweeds go and destroy whole villages in Darfur, rape women, which is a disgrace to their religion, and they torture innocent people.

Darfurians have begun to give up hope about fighting back at the Janjaweed and the Sudanese government. There has been three peace treaties given from the UN to the Sudanese government and every single one of them was broken. This is because the Janjaweed still kept killing and destroying all of Darfur and its people. Sudan is not going to give up the killing of Darfurians unless the UN helps stop it. The UN has stated that the Janjaweed has destroyed every non-Arab village in Darfur already. Over 100,000 people have fled to Chad since 2003. They are fleeing from their home villages to save their own lives. If the genocide continues to get worse, the Darfurians will have no chance to flee and will all begin to die.

Osman Ahmed could only see the quarrels that took him and his family away from their home and getting put in a refugee camp. But, it was no different from what he had been through for the last four years. “The village was totally burned and looted. It was the janjaweed,” said Ahmed. Some from Osman’s village stayed and fought, but him and his family fled to safety. Osman Ahmed and his family haven’t had any control over their lives since the start of the genocide. This young boy and his family could be just like any other family in our country, and they live day to day wondering if they are going to die or have to run away from their home. This story is only of one person out of millions people’s lives in Darfur who struggle with the same problems as this boy, Osman Ahmed.

                                                                                    –Sloth Boy

Stanton, Gregory. “Genocide Emergency: Darfur, Sudan.” Genocide Watch. 15, June, 2005. 28 Feb 2008 <http://www.genocidewatch.org/SudanTwelveWaysToDenyAGenocidebyGregStanton.htm>.

Bengali, Shashank. “Darfur conflict takes unexpected turn.” McClatchy Washington Bureau. August, 2007. Mclatchy Newspaper. 28 Feb 2008 <http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/17820.html>.