The Darfur Humanitarian Crisis: Causes, Human Rights Violations, and Role of NGOs

Running head: THE DARFUR HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
THE DARFUR HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
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THE DARFUR HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
The present paper attempts to outline the chief reasons behind the Darfur Crisis and the
extent of the violation of human rights. Further, the paper also tries to explain the role of the
NGOs working during the crisis.
Prior to learning about the crisis, it is important to know about Darfur. Darfur is a small
region located in Western Sudan in the African continent. The region is surrounded by the
Marrah Mountains and entire eastern part is covered with sandy soils and hills of sandstone.
Central Darfur, East Darfur, North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur are the five federal
states (Origins.osu.edu, 2018).
Experts have identified three chief reasons for the Darfur conflict and the resulting crisis
– ethnicity, oil and desertification (Youtube.com). Due to multifarious ethnic population in
Sudan, conflicts occurring from ethnicity are a common incident. Sudan is home to ethnically
black and Arab and religiously Muslim and Christian population, which causes extreme tension
in the region. The second reason is oil that South Sudan is abound with oil refineries and wells
while the North Sudan has the port from where exports take place. Now, the people in Khartoum,
the epicenter of the crisis have the hold over the payments that come in and thus they exert
power over the South Sudanese. This led to the Second Sudanese Civil War in 1983 in which the
South came out victorious against the North (Youtube.com). The revenues began to enter South
Sudan now and the infrastructure started bettering but in West Darfur people started to question
the government on its neglect of the region. This was largely due to their ethnically black and
religiously Muslim majority in the region. Owing to the growing neglect of the region, the
people started rebellion that resulted in the Darfur crisis in 2003 that is continuing even today
(Youtube.com). The government, when unable to control the rebels, took help from China, the
largest importer of oil, to help them. With advanced weaponry supplied by China, the