The Origins, Nature and Consequences of the Darfur Crisis, 2003-2010

Abstract

The mainstay of this paper is on the western Sudanese region of Darfur. Officially balkanised into four administrative states structure, namely, Central Darfur, East Darfur, North Darfur and West Darfur, the region in the Republic of Sudan was a theatre of crisis also known as the “Land Cruisers War” between 2003 and 2010. The crisis was variously described as “ethnic cleansing”, “genocide”, “humanitarian catastrophe”, “humanitarian crisis”, “humanitarian disaster” and so on. These appellations arose from untold destruction, heavy human casualties, hunger, impoverishment and demographic displacement which typified the crisis. Frantic efforts, internal and external, were made to resolve the crisis to no avail. The origins and nature of the crisis were ill-understood, ill-appreciated and by extension, inappropriate strategies were adopted and deployed to contain it. This paper therefore explores the origins, nature and consequences of the crisis. It gleans information from secondary sources of information for historical reconstruction and employs the narrative and analytical methodology for its presentation. The paper found out that the undercurrents in the crisis were fundamentally economic, ethnocentric and racial, howbeit, with an admixture of regional, national and international intrigues, interests and concerns.