The Sudan Handbook

234 thE sudan handbook

In 1968, the main concern was access to water and firearms. In the

conflicts of the 1990s power and land were at stake. As these conflicts

multiplied, Khartoum’s response was at best one of indifference; and in

many cases the government actively fanned the flames. The language of

marginalization was used by both sides. At the beginning of the conflict,

Mahamat Ibrahim Izzat, a government official in North Darfur and a

Rizeigat Mahariya whose father was killed by the Fur in 1988, justified the

Abbala Arabs’ hunger for land: ‘Before, many Arabs wanted to continue

their nomadic lifestyle at all costs. This war has given them the desire

to settle. The nomads do not have politicians, they have an illiteracy

rate of up to 90 per cent, and until now they had not even thought of

participating in government. They simply look for pastures and only

a few of them think about going to school. Other groups, such as the

Zaghawa, have been settled for a long time, they have stability and are

better educated. Our people are so far behind that they do not have the

leaders capable of becoming ministers, or president. We can share with

the rebels the idea that Darfur is underdeveloped. They say that Darfur

is marginalized, but we, the Arabs, are further away. We are beyond the

margins.’ This kind of complaint on the part of the Abbala Arabs, which

has led them to cleave to the government, has been increasingly recog-

nized by the rebel movements, allowing them to recruit more and more

Abbala, starting with Mahamat Ibrahim Izzat’s brother, Yusuf.

Climate War?

Inspired by Marxism or Islamism, successive regimes in Khartoum saw

the fighting in Darfur during the 1980s and 90s from the same viewpoint:

tribal rivalries from a bygone age, the last vestiges of a feudal system

that had to disappear. But the new violence was less a resurgence of

ancestral vendettas than the result of rapid social change, of identities

and ideologies from outside, and an unprecedented level of population

growth, from less than 1.5 million inhabitants in 1956, to more than 6

million today. Population movement was also driven by an increasingly

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors unreliable climate. During the last forty years, the region has experienced

(www.riftvalley.net).