Darfur Region Of Sudan Research Articles

Unfolding the Landscape of Conflict

This study aims to examine the role of the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in upholding women's rights by helping victims of sexual violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. By extension, it explores whether the organisation provided an effective example of a feminist groups in the face of this issue. This research is descriptive, using qualitative methods. The data taken is based on relevant books, academic journals, and online material. The analytical tools used are the concepts of feminism and international cooperation. The results of this research show that, when attempting to solve the problem of sexual violence in Darfur, UNIFEM came to the aid of victims, collaborating with local institutions in the area. This resulted in positive outcomes for sexual violence victims in Darfur, though UNIFEM continues to face several challenges.
 
 Keywords: Feminism, Sexual Violence, Conflict, UNIFEM

An Appraisal of Nigeria Peace Keeping Process in Darfur –Sudan

The art of external intervention as a strategy for conflict resolution and crisis management has been prominent among nations of the world. In Africa, Nigeria has been championing the course of peace in this respect since her independence. Peace keeping is a third party intervention which operates with a set of guiding principles that include the consent of the parties in conflict, impartiality and non use of force except on self defense. Again, foreign policy of any nation serves as a mirror of its domestic reality. It begins with identification and articulation of national interests. Nation’s interest represents and serves the principal consideration in the formulation and execution of national policies especially in international relations. It’s against this background that Nigeria maintained that ‘Africa is the centre peace and security’ in her foreign policy. Consequently, this paper is focused on the appraisal of Nigeria peace keeping efforts in Darfur region of Sudan from 2004-2015. Content analyses were used and system theory was adopted as a foundation to the research. Some of findings made are: 1. Nigeria’s much engagements in peacekeeping operation are affecting her domestic affair. 2. Nigeria lack understanding of the nature of the conflict among parties, various forces at play and psychology/beliefs of the combatants before involving in the conflict process. 3. Terrain, climatic conditions as well as other challenges in Darfur has advert effect on the peace keepers. Recommendations proffered are 1. Nigeria should make adequate operational plans, mandate and focus that are well spelt out with achievable objectives before engaging in future peacekeeping operation. 2. Nigeria should understand understanding of the nature of the conflict among parties, various forces at play and psychology/beliefs of the combatants before involving in the conflict process. 3. Nigeria should adequately make necessary provision that will enable the peace keepers perform their duties appropriately and professional.

Yellow Fever Outbreak in Darfur Region-Sudan 2012, a Response to Health Crisis

Yellow fever is highly infectious diseases and infect human through the bite of mosquitoes. So, yellow fever needs more efforts to control its transmission in both human and mosquitoes. Sudan is a limited resource and finds difficulties in controlling emerging diseases. This paper explains the situation during a yellow outbreak in the Darfur region, where long lasting conflict was occurring. This conflict is affected on the health system and it was become unable to detect infectious diseases at earlier stages. Also, we discussed the efforts that were made by world community towards controlling this disease.
 In November 2012, Yellow fever outbreak has been reported in the Darfur region in Sudan. The Yellow fever disease outbreak affected 35 localities in four out of five states that comprise the Darfur region December 2012. According to the ministry of Health, 849 people have been infected and 171 (4.96%) died due to this outbreak. The objective is to study the response of different partners in controlling yellow fever outbreak in the Darfur region in Sudan. This is descriptive study, reviews the information regarding yellow fever, and collected data from different sources. Response to this outbreak was made by contribution from different sectors including the federal ministry of health and the international community. Health authorities provided the technical and partial financial assistances to stop disease spread, while the international community, representing in United Nation agencies and NGOs was provided the essential funding to vaccinate population in the Darfur region. Long lasting conflict in countries with limited resources weakened the health system and makes the surveillance unable to detect disease outbreak. Diseases outbreak such as yellow fever need rapid response in order to diagnose and control the disease. Yellow fever outbreak needs contribution of all sectors to control it.

Exploring Challenges to COVID-19 Vaccination in the Darfur Region of Sudan.

ABSTRACT.The current COVID-19 pandemic has affected the ability of health systems to provide essential services globally. The Darfur region, located in the western part of Sudan, has been largely devastated by the war that began in 2003 and has been drawing considerable attention from the international community. The war, which erupted as a result of environmental, political, and economic factors, has led to tragic outcomes. Collapsing health-care infrastructures, health workforce shortages, lack of storage facilities for medicines and medical products, and inadequate access to health services are some of the effects of the war. After Sudan received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access facility, significant challenges have been implicated in the delivery, storage, and use of the vaccine in the Darfur region. Lack of vaccine storage and transportation facilities, vaccination hesitancy, inequity in the distribution to health facilities, and shortage of health-care professionals resulting from insecurity and instability have added an extra layer of burden on local authorities and their ability to manage COVID-19 vaccinations in the region adequately. Addressing the impact of COVID-19 requires an effectively managed vaccination program. In the face of current challenges in Darfur, ensuring a fully vaccinated population might remain far-fetched and improbable if meaningful efforts are not put in place by all stakeholders and actors to address some of the challenges identified.

Neyo: A katabatic dry wind

The objective of this study is to explain how the Neyo wind stream develops and how it can damage crops and endanger people’s lives in the Darfur Region of Sudan. Due to lack of official meteorological observations, the data was retrieved from NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) used by the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT). Three scenarios for katabatic flow were formulated. Forces acting on air parcels were calculated for different slope angles. HYSPLIT vertical soundings revealed a reservoir of dry air over the area. Air parcels moving down slope allow dry air to flow across the thermal inversion layer. Due to the moisture deficit between the down flowing air and the humid grass surface, the leaves get dehydrated.

China Factor in the Sudan Crisis: A Politico-Economic Perspective

China has recognized a more far-reaching factor in Sudan for the last two decades and so, during that it has developed into a blend of lasting ferocious inner volatility and prolonged outward misfortune that has described the political affairs of the central government since 1989. China factor among two inter-linked politico-economic trajectories of Sino-Sudan engagements is studied in this research article. The foremost concerns China’s relationships with Sudan’s national government in integrating China into its national political affairs and international relations over long established crisis in Darfur region of Sudan, to which China has reacted over a more affianced political character. The other provokes the practical precincts of China’s independence principle and limited dependence over dealings with the Sudan’s national government. Following the uncertain events since 2003 in Darfur, China has established a new relationship with Sudan, thus pursuing to place herself to circumnavigate Sudan’s crisis. This research article effort to review a specific context of China factor in Sudan crisis with more focus over the recent politico-economic engagement with Sudan.

Genocide in the human security discourse and rhetoric of Sudan's Darfur : an Asantean view

Genocide is horrible. It is an abomination of the human species, which is totally unacceptable. This is a common denominator among international lawyers, political scientists and other scholars and practitioners with an interest in the study of conflict and its implications on human existence. It is an obscenity, the evil of our time that all people must work to eradicate and this, in itself, is enough to explain why the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is obligatory to all states, including those who are no party to other related international legal instruments such as the Rome Statute of 2002. Thus, genocide is operationally referred to as the general practice of mass extra-judicial executions. To this end, this article seeks to achieve the following two central objectives: (1) interrogate the historical (and/or rhetorical) use of the term ‘genocide’ to refer to the security situation in Darfur region of Sudan during the year 2009 and (2) determine if genocide did take place in Darfur or it was simply a rhetoric. This is informed by the fact that this has been a matter of disagreement among policy makers, academics, political commentators and diplomats. Using the blend of Afrocentric perspective and interdisciplinary critical discourse analysis in its broadest form, we base our argument on the past developments about the Darfur conflict. The major finding of this article partly confirms the Euro-American claim of the occurrence of genocide in Darfur around the year 2009.

An investigation into the interpreters’ challenges in conflict zones: The case of Darfur region in Sudan

The study is aimed to investigate and shed light on some of the challenges encountered by local interpreters and language assistants working for UN peace-keeping missions, operating in conflict zones, namely in Darfur region, western Sudan. The study addresses the following research questions: what are the linguistic, social-cultural, mistrust and communication-related barriers that are encountered by interpreters and language assistants in conflict zones, how do they cope with these challenges, and what could be done to train them to handle such challenges and difficulties. The study adopted a qualitative methodology with semi-structured interviews being the main method of data collection. Twenty participants agreed to voluntarily take part in the investigation by allowing face-to-face interviews. Interview data was transcribed, coded and analyzed thematically. The results of data analysis showed that participants faced a range of challenges that negatively affected their job. They reported difficulties understanding and dealing with some social and cultural issues specific to the region. They also reported some serious life-threatening incidents ranging from physical and verbal attacks. For example, interpreters encountered hostilities from their fellow citizens accusing them of siding with enemy parties involved in the conflicts. Additionally, communication barriers were reported by participants as being the most salient challenge they experienced even when they interpreted accurately, as they would still encounter communication breakdowns caused by the inherent differences in the indigenous languages and varieties in addition to some cultural barriers. The paper offers some insights and implications for the conflict zones’ interpreters’ training and professional development.

Complexity, continuity and change: livelihood resilience in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Darfur farming and pastoralist livelihoods are both adaptations to the environmental variability that characterises the region. This article describes this adaptation and the longer‐term transformation of these specialised livelihoods from the perspective of local communities. Over several decades farmers and herders have experienced a continuous stream of climate, conflict and other shocks, which, combined with wider processes of change, have transformed livelihoods and undermined livelihood institutions. Their well‐rehearsed specialist strategies are now combined with new strategies to cope. These responses help people get by in the short term but risk antagonising not only their specialist strategies but also those of others. A combination of factors has undermined the former integration between farming and pastoralism and their livelihood institutions. Efforts to build resilience in similar contexts must take a long‐term view of livelihood adaptation as a specialisation, and consider the implications of new strategies for the continuity and integration of livelihood specialisations.

Promoting natural resource conflict management in an illiberal setting: Experiences from Central Darfur, Sudan

Abstract My main goal is to draw attention to ongoing conflict and insecurity in Darfur region of Sudan, still one of the world’s largest humanitarian situation. Darfur once commanded global attention but has receded into the shadows of a world suffering from compassion fatigue. This study was prompted by three distinct yet related concerns. The first is the growing interest in environmental performance within illiberal regimes. I contend that understanding the situation in authoritarian and heavily conflict-ridden societies such as Darfur region in Sudan requires a combined holistic and historical framework for understanding the complex interplay of political economy and cultural ecology affecting local use and management of natural resources. The second concern is a desire to reflect on the possibilities and challenges of peacebuilding and recovery Darfur, drawing on my experience there with two projects carried out by the Near East Foundation that sought to promote early recovery in Central Darfur through environmental peacebuilding. Its preparation was prompted by three distinct yet related concerns. The third concern is to address some of the links between peacebuilding and natural resource interventions. I argue that even in extremely illiberal settings such as Darfur that it is still possible to carry out activities that widen the scope for action by local populations. This finding was most evident regarding the project’s conflict management training, which local people ended up applying in a range of situations, and which helped spawn a peace movement among youths. Nevertheless, project participants noted that this training and action, while helpful at the community level, could not address “bigger problems outside.” Renewed national and international peace efforts are needed.

The Rape Epidemic: The Weaponization of Sexual Violence in African Conflicts

Rape and sexual violence in an African context have transitioned from opportunistic individual attacks in the background of weak states and judiciaries, to systematized, strategic tools of war targeting specific civilian communities – so much so that “during wartime, it’s often more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier”. This sexual violence includes rape, mutilation, molestation, forced incest, and sexual enslavement, and is being employed not only by rebel groups, but also by state security forces and militia. The victims of sexual violence include all genders and age groups targeted as a result of various political, economic and social objectives. These objectives have included: boosting troop morale; and political intimidation or humiliation; revenge; ethnic cleansing and disruption of reproduction; spreading terror to induce a community into leaving its land. The emotional, physical, psychological and social affects of the rape pandemic are staggering. This presentation will examine three pertinent case studies of conflicts where sexual violence was/is widespread – the civil war in Sierra Leone; the Second Congo War in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); and the current genocide occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan. These examinations will illuminate how sexual violence has been and can be used for different ends and the ramifications of this new weapon. This presentation will also review the role the international community has played in discouraging sexual violence. Based on these analyses, this presentation will demonstrate that sexual violence is a potent tool of war because of its versatility of use and devastating ramifications, and that its prevalence in Africa is promoted by the subordinated position of females in both African culture and the international system generally.

Militarised Peacekeeping in Darfur

In February 2014, the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations produced a Strategic Review of the troubled United Nations-African Union Hybrid Operation in the Darfur region of Sudan (unamid). The Strategic Review faults many aspects of the operation; however, it finds that its mandate is the correct one, concludes that its staffing levels are sufficient and warmly welcomes what it sees as an improved relationship with the Sudanese government. This report may be contrasted with a Foreign Policy investigation published in April 2014, where journalist Colum Lynch provides an unvarnished analysis of the operation. Relying on documents leaked by Aicha Elbasri, former Spokesperson for unamid, the Foreign Policy investigation describes a troubled operation, failing in many of its tasks and mistrusted by parts of the populace. The Foreign Policy investigation portrays a force that routinely downplays or covers up its shortcomings and under-reports violence by the host state government against Darfuri civilians and unamid itself. It is argued that the functioning of unamid provides a vivid illustration of the difficulties associated with a militarised peacekeeping operation, especially when it is emplaced in a country that never wanted it there in the first place.

Representing Human Rights Violations in Darfur: Global Justice, National Distinctions.

This article examines how international judicial interventions in mass atrocity influence representations of violence. It relies on content analysis of 3,387 articles and opinion pieces in leading newspapers from eight Western countries, compiled into the Darfur Media Dataset, as well as in-depth interviews to assess how media frame violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. Overall, it finds that UN Security Council and International Criminal Court interventions increase representations of mass violence as crime in all countries under investigation, although each country applies the crime frame at a different level. Reporting suffering and categorizing the violence as genocide also varies across countries. Comparative case studies identify country specific structural and cultural forces that appear to account for these differences. Multilevel multivariate analyses confirm the explanatory power of cultural sensitivities and policy practices, while individual-and organization-level factors, such as reporters' gender and the newspapers' ideological orientation, also have explanatory power.

The Independence of South African Judges: A Constitutional and Legislative Perspective

Judicial independence is fundamental to democracy. It is in that context that this paper considers whether the existing constitutional and legislative mechanisms provide sufficient judicial independence to South African judges. In so doing, the paper focuses on impartiality, judicial appointments and security of tenure. It also discusses the sensitive matter of complaints and disciplinary proceedings against judges and their removal from office. The issue of the remuneration of judges is also explored. In discussing the challenges facing judicial independence some incidents that have appeared to compromise such independence are highlighted. These include the controversial appointments of Advocate Mpshe as an acting judge in the North West Province in 2010 and Judge Heath as the Head of the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) in 2011. The never-ending controversy surrounding the Cape Judge President John Hlophe and his alleged attempts to improperly influence two Constitutional Court judges in a case involving President Jacob Zuma is also highlighted. Another issue that has brought judicial independence into sharp focus is the June 2015 visit to South Africa of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who was on a warrant of arrest from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide and war crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan. A decision by the North Gauteng High Court on his presence in South Africa and the attacks on the judiciary made by various government officials as a result are discussed. Several conclusions are drawn but in the main, it is generally concluded that the constitutional and legislative framework adopted by South Africa sufficiently insulates judges from improper influence. However, there have been several notable challenges that particularly relate to judicial appointments and how the JSC has handled certain matters. Irresponsible and uninformed political statements by politicians and unwarranted political attacks on the judiciary by government are also a source of great concern. These challenges could and should be construed as threats to judicial independence, and need to be comprehensively and properly addressed.

Epidemiological survey of Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever virus in cattle in East Darfur State, Sudan

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne disease caused by CCHF virus (CCHFV) of the genus Nairovirus in the family Bunyaviridae. CCHFV causes subclinical infection in domestic livestock and an often fatal hemorrhagic illness in humans, with approximately 30% mortality rates. In the present study, a cross-sectional serosurvey was conducted in a total of 282 randomly selected cattle from five localities in East Darfur State, Sudan. The exposure status to CCHF was determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of CCHFV-specific IgG antibodies in cattle serum samples. The CCHFV-specific IgG antibodies were detected in 54 out of 282 animals, accounting for a 19.14% prevalence rate. Older cattle (>2 years of age) were approximately five times more likely to be infected with the virus (OR=4.90, CI=1.28–18.98, p-value=0.02). Heavily tick-infested cattle (ticks all over the body) were at 11 times higher at risk compared to tick-free animals (OR=11.11, CI=2.86–43.25, p-value=0.01). Grazing system is another factor affecting CCHF, where cattle grazing on open system were 27 times more at risk compared to other grazing systems (OR=27.22, CI=7.46–99.24, p-value=0.001). There was an association between localities and CCHF cattle (OR=0.24, CI=0.07–0.83, p-value=0.02). This study confirms the exposure of cattle to CCHF in East Darfur and identifies potential risk factors associated with the disease. Further epidemiological studies and improved surveillance are urgently needed to prevent a possible outbreak of CCHF among humans in the Darfur region of Sudan.

UNAMID: a hybrid solution to a human security problem in Darfur?

In response to the widespread death, displacement and human insecurity created by the 2003 eruption of conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, the newly established African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council, with its nascent doctrine of ‘non-indifference’ to insecurity inside regional states, initially deployed a small ceasefire monitoring team. The scope of the ongoing crisis in Darfur relative to the mandate and capacity of this AU team led to calls for the deployment of a more substantial UN peace operation with a robust civilian protection mandate, but the Sudanese government, implicated in crimes against the civilian population, rejected a mission of this character. These competing pressures led, in 2007, to the authorisation of the AU–UN hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID), an unprecedented joint peace operation constituted by forces of ‘predominantly African character’, while being largely externally financed and structured by UN command and control and backstopping. Despite some achievements, UNAMID has been beset by significant authority, legitimacy, coordination, logistical and capacity challenges, including that it is yet to reach full deployment levels. This paper argues that UNAMID represents, on the one hand, an important attempt by the evolving AU to play a direct and effective role in regional peace operations, and contains elements of a viable model for other potential hybrid operations on the continent. On the other hand, however, the political compromise with Khartoum has continued to undermine the ability of UNAMID to provide adequate human security for the displaced and vulnerable civilian populations of Darfur.

Postdevelopment Television? Cultural Citizenship and the Mediation of Africa in Contemporary TV Drama

Despite well-established critiques from African and Africanist scholars, problematic images and narratives of Africa as a site of disease, famine, and conflict continue to circulate formulaically in mainstream first-world media. Meanwhile, many recent complex humanitarian emergencies in African countries have failed to garner significant attention from mainstream Western media and their audiences. This article examines how these power-bearing patterns of representation and omission can be complicated, contested, and disrupted in contemporary TV drama that takes recent African crises as its subject matter. We focus on six episodes of the hospital drama ER set in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur region of Sudan. Our analysis of the textual strategies deployed in these episodes and of online audience engagements with them enables us to explore what happens when Africa is brought into the regimes of narrative complexity increasingly associated with television drama in the new media ecology. ER's engagements with African conflict innovatively articulate key aspects of the cultural politics of postdevelopment and postcolonialism in ways that challenge familiar Western media tropes of the “troubled continent” and destabilize the wider knowledges that sustain them.

Theorizing Issue Selection in Advocacy Organizations: An Analysis of Human Rights Activism around Darfur and the Congo, 1998–2010

Why do advocacy organizations focus on some issues rather than others? Issue selection is an important area of study given that advocacy organizations have limited time and resources and thus many potentially important issues go ignored. Yet issue selection remains an understudied question in the scholarly study of advocacy organizations. In this article, the author draws on historical data, interviews, and a database of statements by major human rights advocacy organizations to examine one particular historical puzzle regarding issue selection: Why advocacy organizations have focused on the recent conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan rather than the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, even though more people have died in the Congo. The author finds that advocacy organizations select issues not based on their severity but based on framing, political opportunities, and organizational resources.

No Way Back? Adaptation and Urbanization of IDP Livelihoods in the Darfur Region of Sudan

ABSTRACTThis article explores how people in conflict zones adapt their livelihoods after they migrate to urban areas. Drawing on case studies in two towns in the Darfur region of Sudan, the authors find that livelihood systems are in transition and have undergone fundamental changes resulting from displacement and the effects of conflict on dysfunctional and failing institutions. Urban migrants’ livelihood strategies evolve in a context of insecurity, distorted markets, lack of regulation and punitive rent‐seeking regimes such as protection payments. Maladaptive livelihood strategies emerge in response to the need for food and income in the short term. New strategies also can increase societal inequities and marginalization, and over‐exploit limited natural resources. Thus the ‘new’ livelihoods cannot be considered sustainable or equitable, or even able to provide food security in the short term. Locally appropriate and innovative approaches to support livelihoods are badly needed, but it is important to monitor and evaluate their impacts on livelihood groups, local economic recovery, environment and conflict.

Medical Evidence of Human Rights Violations against Non-Arabic-Speaking Civilians in Darfur: A Cross-Sectional Study

Ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan has resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis. We sought to characterize the nature and geographic scope of allegations of human rights violations perpetrated against civilians in Darfur and to evaluate their consistency with medical examinations documented in patients' medical records. This was a retrospective review and analysis of medical records from all 325 patients seen for treatment from September 28, 2004, through December 31, 2006, at the Nyala-based Amel Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, the only dedicated local provider of free clinical and legal services to civilian victims of torture and other human rights violations in Darfur during this time period. Among 325 medical records identified and examined, 292 (89.8%) patients from 12 different non-Arabic-speaking tribes disclosed in the medical notes that they had been attacked by Government of Sudan (GoS) and/or Janjaweed forces. Attacks were reported in 23 different rural council areas throughout Darfur. Nearly all attacks (321 [98.8%]) were described as having occurred in the absence of active armed conflict between Janjaweed/GoS forces and rebel groups. The most common alleged abuses were beatings (161 [49.5%]), gunshot wounds (140 [43.1%]), destruction or theft of property (121 [37.2%]), involuntary detainment (97 [29.9%]), and being bound (64 [19.7%]). Approximately one-half (36 [49.3%]) of all women disclosed that they had been sexually assaulted, and one-half of sexual assaults were described as having occurred in close proximity to a camp for internally displaced persons. Among the 198 (60.9%) medical records that contained sufficient detail to enable the forensic medical reviewers to render an informed judgment, the signs and symptoms in all of the medical records were assessed to be consistent with, highly consistent with, or virtually diagnostic of the alleged abuses. Allegations of widespread and sustained torture and other human rights violations by GoS and/or Janjaweed forces against non-Arabic-speaking civilians were corroborated by medical forensic review of medical records of patients seen at a local non-governmental provider of free clinical and legal services in Darfur. Limitations of this study were that patients seen in this clinic may not have been a representative sample of persons alleging abuse by Janjaweed/GoS forces, and that most delayed presenting for care. The quality of documentation was similar to that available in other conflict/post-conflict, resource-limited settings.