Darfur acquires great importance due to the fact that it contains areas with both agricultural and pastoral potential that provide support for a range of livelihoods and ways of life. Geographically, its location controls trade routes between the north and south (Road 40 from Mosul to Egypt) on the one hand, and roads heading from west to east, including the route to the holy sites in Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj, on the other hand (Maqlad 1985). It is estimated that the area covers over half a million square kilometres (190,420 square miles), and represents approximately 20% of Sudanese territory, which is equivalent to the size of Spain (Olsson 2010a, p. 4) or France (O’Fahey 2006, p. 24). Darfur is bordered by three countries: Libya, Chad, and
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the Central African Republic, and stretches from uninhabited desert areas in the north, to a Sahelian semi-arid area in the centre and more fertile savannah landscape in the south. Darfur is made up of a plateau, some 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea-level (International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur 2005).
The importance of the region stems from several factors that feature in the area more than in other regions. For example, Darfur is regarded as the largest productive livestock province in Sudan. This is attributed to the diversity of the climate in the region and its appropriate nature, in addition to an abundance of pastures which enable Darfur to play an important role in Sudan's exports, including an estimated 60%
of camels and sheep to Egypt and Libya. In addition, there is huge mineral wealth in the ground, distributed in different areas in the province (Salahuddin 15/01/2013).
These include iron, gold, zinc, nickel, lead, copper, bauxite and the recent discovery of large quantities of oil. Darfur is also characterised by the availability of fertile soil and a favourable climate, which makes the region one of the largest agricultural production areas in the world for crops, such as gum Arabic and agricultural grains, including sesame and peanuts (Musa 2009, p. 77).
It is also mostly a plateau which includes the volcanic Marrah Mountain range, which has very fertile land. The Marrah Mountain range covers an area of approximately 9,000 square kilometres, and has a maximum height of about 10,000 feet above sea level. Darfur is Sudan’s largest region in terms of landmass and population (Tar 2006, p. 412)6. Administratively, the province has been divided into three states since 1994: North Darfur and its capital at the city of El Fasher, South Darfur and its capital at the city of Nyala, and West Darfur, with its capital at the city of Al-Junaynah (see map No: 1). The Darfur province is inhabited by approximately 6.5-7 million people, which is roughly 26% of the country's population (Al-Mashaqbah and Al-Taieb 2012, p. 47; Suleiman 2011, p. 4).
6 Also, for more descriptive information about Darfur see Suleiman 2011.
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Map No 1: the Darfur region
The population of Darfur consists of two main different ethnicities: Africans and Arabs. African tribes rely on a stable life style – agricultural and pastoral – such as the Fur, Masalit, Zaghawa, Dajo, Altama, and Tunjur tribes in addition to other groups of Arabic nomadic Arab tribes that move from place to place like the Abbala, Alzbidat, Mahamid, Mahariya, Bani Hussein, and Rizeigat. The majority of these tribes speak their own local languages in addition to Arabic. The second, the Arab
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tribes, of which the most important are the Rizeigat, Bani-Halba, Habbaniya, and Ta’aisha, are pastoralist tribes who depend on the movement and grazing of camels and cows. They are from candid Arab roots and speak Arabic. Furthermore, most of Darfur’s population are Muslim (Flint and de Waal 2008, p. 10). Acknowledging the causes that led to civil conflict is essential for conflict resolution, as well as to evade a future repetition of the conflict. Civil conflict is often grounded in an accumulation of complex factors, rather than a single grievance or factor (Flint 2010, p. 45).
Determining and understanding these complexities facilitates recognition of the key issues that have contributed to the conflict. Like other African conflicts, the Darfur Crisis seems to be more complex than merely concentrating on one side of the crisis demonstrates. It is hard to attribute it merely to one or two factors, simply because of the overlapping factors and the combination of past with present. As is mentioned above, the current crisis is not new. It has deep historical roots that extend decades into the past. Therefore, looking back to the mid-1980s, before the violence between Africans and Arabs began to simmer, helps us to truly understand the current crisis (Faris 2007). This chapter does not aim to discuss the historical account of Darfur or its conflicts,7 rather it seeks to address a set of different and overlapping factors that significantly contributed to the creation of the environment which led to the deterioration in intra-Darfur relations, and which ultimately fuelled the conflict in the region. The instability and current emergency in Darfur can be attributed to several integrated factors. A number of internal and external factors that considerably affect one another have led to an argument that the conflict taking place in Darfur can be seen basically as a domestic conflict. These factors include political, economic, environmental, and social issues, which greatly contribute to insecurity across the whole region.
7 See Osman Suliman; the Darfur Conflict: Geography or Institutions? (New York: Routledge, 2011).
Alex de Waal and Julie Flint, Darfur: A Short History of a Long War (London: Zed Books, 2005);
Alex de Waal, ‘Who are the Darfurians? Arab and African Identities, Violence and External engagement,’ African Affairs 104, no. 415 (2005); Mahmood Mamdani, Saviors and Survivors:
Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror (London: Verso, 2009); Gérard Prunier, The Ambiguous Genocide (New York: Cornell University Press, 2005).
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