The Economist - USA (2019-11-30)

42 TheEconomistNovember 30th 2019

1

M

en withguns fill the town of el-Fa-

sher in western Sudan’s troubled Dar-

fur region. At the airport dozens are board-

ing or disembarking from planes, wearing

uniforms of the Rapid Support Forces

(rsf), a unit formed from Sudan’s murder-

ous militia known as the Janjaweed.

Down the road is the headquarters of

unamid, the unpeacekeeping force that

was brought in 12 years ago to stop a geno-

cide by the Janjaweed and Sudan’s army,

whose base is in the centre of town. Seven

months after the fall of General Omar al-

Bashir, the Sudanese president accused of

orchestrating that genocide, el-Fasher still

looks like a town on the edge of a war zone.

But it has become more colourful of

late. Mud walls along dusty streets are

daubed with murals of the national flag

and revolutionary slogans like “Sudan is

for all”. They reflect a burst of optimism

that a revolution that swept through Khar-

toum, the capital, in April may bring peace

to a region synonymous with suffering.

This hope has been fuelled by a power-

sharing agreement signed in August be-

tween leaders of the protest movement and

the generals who had staged a coup when it

was clear that Mr Bashir would fall. The

deal committed the interim government to

negotiating a “comprehensive peace” in

Darfur and other states afflicted by conflict

within six months. The new government,

headed by Abdalla Hamdok, an economist-

turned-prime-minister, has since set up a

peace commission and revived talks with

rebel groups in Darfur.

Sudan has been at war almost without

interruption since its independence from

Britain in 1956. For years an Arab-domin-

ated Islamist government battled rebels

from the Christian and animist south. Per-

haps 2m people died in these wars before

South Sudan was recognised in 2011 as Afri-

ca’s newest country.

In 2003 armed groups began a rebellion

in Darfur, a relatively prosperous region

the size of Spain where black African locals

complained that the government in Khar-

toum was oppressing them. In response,

Mr Bashir armed nomadic Arab cattle-

herders, turning them into the Janjaweed,

a horse-mounted militia that was un-

leashed upon black farmers with such sav-

agery that in 2010 the International Crimi-

nal Court (icc) indicted Mr Bashir on

charges of genocide.

Many of those who were chased from

their homes languish in camps near towns

like el-Fasher or in neighbouring Chad.

Their lands are occupied by armed Arab

tribes that the victims still call the Janja-

weed. Abdulrazig Abdallah, an elder in el-

Fasher, says four people from his camp

were killed in early September when they

ventured to their farms for the harvest.

Such incidents are commonplace.

The new government has declared a

ceasefire with rebels, which even the most

recalcitrant seem to be observing. “This

Ending Darfur’s misery

A slender chance for peace

EL-FASHER

Sudan’s democratic revolution offers hope of an end to the conflict in Darfur

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