Sudan/Darfur Crisis Fact Sheet #1

General Information About Sudan and Darfur Crisis
June 3, 2005
 

Population: 35 million (UN, 2005)

Location: North Africa, just south of Egypt

Capital: Khartoum

Area: 966,757 sq miles -- largest country in Africa
The Darfur region, one of the largest in Sudan, covers roughly 200,000 square miles. That makes it 25 percent larger than California, or about the size of France.

President: Lt. Gen. Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir (since 1989)

Major Ethnic Groups: Black (52%), Arab (39%), Beja (6%), Foreigners (2%), Other (1%)

Religion: Sunni Muslim (70%, in north), indigenous beliefs (25%), Christian (5%, in south)

Major Trading Partners: China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, India, UK, Germany, Indonesia, Australia

Official language: Arabic; Nubian and other languages are spoken.

Major religions: Islam (most prominent), Christianity

Main exports: Oil, cotton, sesame, livestock and hides, gum arabic

Per capita income: US $460 (World Bank, 2003)

Sudan is the largest and one of the most diverse countries in Africa, with deserts, mountains, swamps and rain forests. Located just south of Egypt, the Nile River flows through the country. The economy, until recently, has been concentrated on agriculture, particularly in the Nile River Valley. More recently, the discovery of oil has opened the country to significant outside investment. China has become Sudan’s number one business partner.

Sudan’s population is composed of two distinct cultures: black African and Arab. Since gaining independence in 1956, a series of military coups, a civil war, and severe famine have burdened Sudan with political and economic instability. The civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the animist and Christian south lasted 21 years and cost the lives of 1.5 million people. After two years of bargaining, the Arab Muslim government and rebels signed a comprehensive peace deal in January 2005.

Just as the war in the south was winding down, in 2003 fighting broke out in the western region of Darfur. The residents, mostly black African Muslims seeking greater independence from the Sudanese government in Khartoum, launched an insurrection. The Sudanese government responded by bombing villages and by backing Arab militias known as the Janjaweed. The United Nations says that about 180,000 people have died in the two-year conflict in Darfur, and more than two million driven from their homes. By late 2004, some 200,000 Sudanese had fled across the border to neighboring Chad, and an estimated 1.6 million were displaced within Darfur where militias reportedly killed, raped and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.

The UN describes the Darfur conflict as one of the world´s worst humanitarian crises. In September 2004, then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that the State Department "concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility."

On June 1, 2005, President Bush said that he concurred with Powell´s assessment that the situation in Darfur was genocide. "We are working with NATO to make sure that we are able to help the African Union put combat troops there," Bush said. He indicated that U.S. will continue to provide financial and logistical assistance, but not U.S. troops to help stop the genocide. Bush made this comment at a meeting with South African President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki said that he did not want deployment of U.S. troops in Darfur or in other African conflict areas rather support for African peacekeeping troops.

So far, neither the label “genocide,” nor U.N. pronouncements, nor a small force of about 2,400 African Union peacekeepers, has been able to stop the killing, rapes and the massive refugee situation.

Sources: World Facts and Maps, Rand McNally; BBC News; Human Rights Watch; United Nations, Washington Post.