Friday 29 January 2010

Sudan: conflict in Darfur

The situation in the western Darfur region of Sudan has
been labelled the worst humanitarian crisis in the world
today. A conflict between rebel forces on the one side,
and the Sudanese Government and the governmentbacked
Janjaweed militia on the other, has left between
10,000 and 30,000 people dead. An estimated 1.3
million civilians have been displaced from their homes.
Aid agencies and governments warn of the potential for
a humanitarian catastrophe brought on by famine and
disease, unless urgent action is taken to improve the
security of the civilian population and to provide food
and shelter.
This paper examines the background to the conflict,
and looks at the international response to the
humanitarian crisis. Maps of Sudan and Darfur are
included as appendices. The recent progress made in
resolving the decades-long Sudanese civil war between
the north and south is the subject of a separate Standard
Note, SN/IA/2155, Sudan.
Tim Youngs

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Documents Concerning the Dinka-Nuer Peace Process

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Thursday 28 January 2010

Human Stability and Conflict in the Horn of Africa

The issues addressed in this paper relate to human security or, as we would prefer to call it, human stability, at the regional, national and subregional levels in the Horn of Africa. Specific attention is paid, first, to steps taken at the level of the African continent towards promoting increased human stability and the prevention of conflict in the region; second, to the development of a conflict-prevention agenda at the subregional level; and last, to steps that must be taken in order to realize these objectives.
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Ethnic conflict in the Horn of Africa: Myth and reality

Most of the wars waged in the Horn of Africa during the past 30 years have been described in terms of ethnic conflict, both by the adversaries themselves and by external analysts. The first and second Sudan civil wars have been characterized as conflicts between the Arabized northerners and African southerners, with cleavages along religious, racial, cultural, and linguistic lines. The various civil wars in Ethiopia have been characterized as wars between the Amharas and the Tigreans, Oromos, Eritreans, and so on. The Somali conflicts have been described as conflicts between the Maraheens and the Isaaqs, or between the Darods and the Ogadenis, and so on; and the conflict in Djibouti as between the Afars and the Issas.

Although each of these wars has been termed "ethnic conflict", one encounters tremendous difficulty when trying to analyse what is meant by this term and what these conflicts have been about. In this chapter some of the problems associated with the concept of ethnicity and ethnic conflict as they apply to the Horn of Africa will be examined. A discussion will follow of various mechanisms that have been utilized or advocated in the region to remedy the problem of ethnic conflict. The chapter will conclude with remarks on some possible responses that might open ways for the transformation and hopefully the alleviation of the problem.
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