Crisis in Darfur

Module Research Resources: Resource created by the Understanding Sudan project.

Background Information

• Darfur: Rainfall and Conflict. Paper by Leslie Gray and Michael Kevane. Examines connection between rainfall and conflict. Analysis of the data suggests there is little merit to the proposition that a structural break several decades earlier is a reasonable predictor of the outbreak of large-scale civil conflict in Africa.
• Fact Sheet on Darfur Prepared by UnderstandingSudan.org Latest version: March 11, 2006
• Rainfall trends in western Sudan by UnderstandingSudan.org, Current version: July 30, 2006
• Causes of Conflict in Sudan: Testing The Black Book by Alex Cobham, of St Anne's College, Oxford, in The European Journal of Development Research, Vol.17, No.3, September 2005, pp.462-480. This paper uses the available data to evaluate the performance of the current regime, and finds that policy has systematically undermined the human development of the population of the marginal regions, not least Darfur.
• Counter-Insurgency on the Cheap Alex De Waal, from the London Review of Books of 5 August 2004.
• Darfur and the Genocide Glitterati. Anne Bartlett, Sudan Tribune, 19 February 2007.
• Darfur Horse Festival. Pictures from the BBC of a traditional equestrian festival that has been revived as a forum for discussing peace and reconciliation.
• Darfur Joint Assessment Mission "D-JAM". As mandated in the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) the parties, GNU and SLM, have now embarked upon a process to identify key early recovery and long term reconstruction and development needs for Darfur. This process, the Darfur Joint Assessment Mission (D-JAM), is led by the parties with support from the international community, particularly the United Nations and the World Bank, and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
• Darfur's Manmade Disaster by Peter Verney from Middle East Report Online, July 22, 2004.
• Disaster In Darfur by Robert O. Collins, prepared in May 2004 for African Geopolitics, Paris; no 15-15 Summer-Fall October 2004. (Word document)
• Disasters: Special Issue - Food Security in Sudan Guest Edited by Kirsten Gelsdorf, Peter Walker and Daniel Maxwell. March 2007 - Vol. 31 Issue s1 Page S1-S138. Contains a selection of papers presented at a forum, organised by the World Food Programme and the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, and held in Khartoum in June 2006.
• Giving Meaning to 'Never Again': Seeking an Effective Response to the Crisis in Darfur and Beyond By Cheryl Igiri, Princeton N. Lyman, Council on Foreign Relations, 2004.
• Google Timeline Result for "Darfur Sudan". Produces a chronology based on news stories. Possible to drill down to years and months.
• Ideology in arms: The emergence of Darfur's Janjaweed By Julie Flint and Alex de Waal, from Lebanon's The Daily Star, August 30, 2005. (Excerpted from Darfur: A Short History of a Long War, published by Zed Books, available in October 2005.)
• Is Climate Change the Culprit for Darfur? By Alex de Waal. Posted une 25th, 2007 on his SSRC Blog: http://www.ssrc.org/blog/category/darfur/
• Josephine Bakheita, The Vatican's page.
• Josephine Bakheita, Wikipedia entry.
• Minority Rights, Early Warning and Conflict Prevention: Lessons from Darfur (PDF). London based Minority Rights Group International released this report on 16 October 2006
• R.S. O'Fahey's Darfur Website. Professor O'Fahey (University of Bergen) is a noted historian of Darfur and Kordofan in Sudan. He has posted both primary and secondary documents on this site. It includes a grammar of the Fur language.
• Rebels and Refugees: Darfuris Make Their Demands. Shane Bauer, in Faultlines, Thursday Aug 24th, 2006. Includes original photos.
• Subverting the Sultan: British Arms Shipments to the Arabs of Darfur, 1915-16. By Dr. Andrew McGregor. In Military History Online. Published online: 06/09/2006. Will be published as part of a forthcoming book on the history of Darfur.
• Sudan Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment, By UNEP, June 2007. (Entire report, 35 mb; synthesis, 1.79 mb)
• The Darfur Radio Project A monthly radio broadcast based in the Philadelphia area that explores the historical, political, economic, and social contexts of the conflict in Darfur.
• Tragedy in Darfur: On understanding and ending the horror Alex de Waal, Originally published in the October/November 2004 issue of Boston Review.
• UnderstandingSudan.org A new project of the Center for African Studies at University of California, Berkeley funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
• University for Peace, Environmental Degradation as Source of Conflict in Darfur An excellent report of a small conference in Khartoum in December 2004, moderated by R.S. O'Fahey, noted historian of Darfur.
• Web dossier on Conflict in Sudan Compiled in 2004 by the Library, Documentation and Information Department of the African Studies Centre Leiden.
• Web Dossier on Darfur, Compiled by the library staff of the African Studies Centre Leiden to coincide with a public meeting on "Darfur and the international community" organized on 9 February 2007 by the ASC.
• What right do we have to to advocate on Darfur? A three part discussion on the the blog, Humanitarian Relief, on change.org .
• Who has the right to advocate for Darfur? Summary of online debate on activism on the humanitarian relief site for www.change.org .
• Getting the UN into Darfur, International Crisis Group, 12 October 2006
• Minority Rights Group International. MRG focuses on the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide. In October 2006, they released a report Minority Rights, Early Warning and Conflict Prevention: Lessons from Darfur on Darfur.
• ReliefWeb - Financial tracking of Appeals Financial tracking of appeals and updated spreadsheet of UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Sudan
• Africa Focus ~ Sudan page An independent website featuring analysis and advocacy on African issues:
• AlertNet - (Reuters) Darfur Crisis Profile
• Darfur Information Center maintained by Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D., African Studies Center University of Pennsylvania
• 'Darfur: Livelihoods Under Siege' - ODI (UK) Meeting Report Audio available for talk by Helen Young, Director of Public Nutrition, and Rebecca Dale, Feinstein International Famine Center, Tufts University, at 15 April 2005. Executive Summary of the report is also available.
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Committee on Conscience - Sudan:Darfur Overview

Books for Teaching

• Darfur: A Short History of a Long War. Now available in paperback at Amazon.com. A comprehensive agreement for resolving the conflict in Darfur is currently not in sight. For a cogent analysis of the origins of the conflict, no better commentator is around than Alex de Waal. He worked in Darfur relief in the early 1980s, and then went on to work broadly on human rights issues in Africa. His latest book (co-authored with Julie Flint) is now available in the United States.

Latest Articles

• Darfur: What Next? Keynote Address by Gareth Evans to International Crisis Group/Save Darfur Coalition/European Policy Centre Conference, Towards a Comprehensive Settlement for Darfur, Brussels, 22 January 2007.
• Planning for Peace in Darfur, Speech by David Mozersky to International Crisis Group/Save Darfur Coalition/European Policy Centre Conference, Towards a Comprehensive Settlement for Darfur, Brussels, 22 January 2007
• The Hazy Path Forward in Sudan. By Sarah Washburne, in the Middle East Report Online, 24 March 2009.
• The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency. Mahmood Mamdani. In the London Review of Books, Vol. 29 No. 5 dated 8 March 2007. This article compares the situations in and responses to the conflicts in Iraq and Darfur. Gerard Prunier among others sent in letters commenting on this article. See http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n06/letters.html#1, http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n07/letters.html#1,http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n08/letters.html#1 and http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n10/letters.html#5 .
• Wanted: Omar al-Bashir and Peace in Sudan. By Khalid Mustafa Medani, in the Middle East Report Online, 5 March 2009.
• Justice Africa, Darfur Collection of background articles on establishing peace in Darfur

Primary Resources

• Darfur Peace Agreement. On Friday the 5th of May 2006, the Government of Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (Minni Minawi) signed the Darfur Peace Agreement. Available also on the UNMIS web site:http://www.unmis.org/English/2006Docs/DPA_ABUJA-5-05-06-withSignatures.pdf .
• R.S. O'Fahey's notes from Condominium files on Darfur The files were found in Kutum in 1976.
• R.S. O'Fahey's NRO Notes on Darfur. These are R.S. O'Fahey's notes from files on Darfur in the National Records Office, Khartoum and from the Sudan Archive, University of Durham.
• The Black Book - A review by Abdullahi Osman El-Tom
• Treaties, Communiques and Other Key Documents List provided by the Institute for Security Studies, a regional research institute operating across sub-Saharan Africa.
• Understanding the Darfur Peace Agreeement AfricaFocus, "Sudan: Opportunity for Peace"
• The Black Book - English translation on JEM website Part 2.(Downloads as zip; PDF is inside).
• The Black Book - English translation on JEM website, part 1 Part 2 can be found here: http://www.sudanjem.com/2004/en/books_php/blackbook_part2/bbtwo.htm .
• The Black Book history or Darfur's darkest chapter By William Wallis, The Financial Times, August 20, 2004

Research Networks

• Darfur Task Force listserv This list is dedicated to discuss the current conflict in Darfur, Western Sudan.