FME

Introduction
With a population of approximately 20 million people, Sudan is the largest country in Africa . But out of sight, over two million Black Nuba Muslims, Christians and Animist tribal followers have been killed by government supported rebels in what it proclaims to be ‘Jihad’ (Holy War). Sudan has seen more casualties than those in Bosnia , Rwanda , Angola , Chechnya , Kosovo , Liberia , the Persian Gulf , Sierra Leone , and Somalia put together.

The division created in Sudan between the Muslim Government in the north and Christian forces in the south has caused the displacement of 4.5 million people — the largest internally displaced population in the entire world.
Amnesty USA

The Sudanese government are conducting “ethnic cleansing” and “crimes against humanity”.
Human Rights Watch

The situation in Darfur , western Sudan is “the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis”.
Mukesh Kapila, UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Sudan

"There is perhaps no greater tragedy on the face of the earth today."
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell

But these words have made little impact on the tragic Sudanese situation. The international community has taken no steps to improve the situation and hardly anything is heard about it in the media. The children of Sudan have never known peace – for all but 11 years since independence, Sudan has been overtaken by civil war.

History and Background

The North and South of Sudan were previously considered separate countries. The North was dominated by Arab-Muslims and the south was home to Christians, Black Nuba Muslims and those who followed tribal culture (Animists). In the 1800 the North invaded and began to enforce Islamic rule throughout.

In 1989, after years of fighting, the National Islamic Front staged a coup and remain in power to this day.
BBC

Although initially opposed to the previous ‘Jihad’ their true intentions came to light later. Six pro-government Sudanese Imams issued an explicit fatwa.

"An insurgent who was previously a Muslim is now an apostate and a non-Muslim is a non-believer standing against the spread of Islam, and Islam has granted the freedom of killing both of them."
Jihad Watch

This made the murder of Christians, Animists, Black Nuba and Darfur Muslims religiously legitimate.

Sudan is the "site of the world's most long-lasting religious persecution and genocide," and it "haunts" me. It is "genocide in slow motion."
Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust writer

A first genocide started in the early '90s and continued until 2002. Over two million people perished and five million more were displaced before peace protocols, brokered largely by the Bush administration, were signed in May 2004
Sudan Tribune, US State Dept.

A second genocide is occurring under the current regime in Darfur - black, Sufi Muslim tribes who don’t speak Arabic who are treated as second-class citizens by the government.
Mathaba News

The international community has not been without ample evidence of this new genocide - the U.S. Agency for International Development presented Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Security Council with aerial photographs of 576 villages:

300 of these villages have "been completely destroyed" 76 have been "severely damaged” and “The rest are fine, and they are all Arab. It's clear that ethnic cleansing is going on here."
Director, U.S. Agency for International Development

ven NASA satellite images show that 400 villages containing 56,000 houses have been destroyed by air assaults and government-allied militias on the ground.
USAID

"We believe that much of the hardship is being caused by the violence perpetrated by the militias, that we know the militias are being supported by the government and that the government needs to bring those militias under control.”
State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher

"The Sudanese government have a systematic intention of removing many black Africans from Darfur by violent means."
Phil Cox, a British journalist who eye-witnessed the destruction.
CNN's International Correspondents program (April 2004)

Of the 1.2 million Darfur villagers that have been driven from their homes, hundreds of thousands of these refugees are expected to die simply due to disease and malnutrition.
Freedom House

The Sudanese Government makes no secret of its ambitions to impose radical Islam on the entire country regardless of the people’s wishes and previous beliefs.

Reuters reported that Sudanese General Omar al-Bashir, described his government’s actions as “the removal of obstacles, by force if necessary, that stand between people and Islam. It is the practical method of spreading Islam.”
SecularIslam.org, Khilifah.com

describe the Sudanese regime as the "world's most violent abuser of the right to freedom of religious belief” and the government has been blamed for its “efforts to impose its extremist interpretation of Islam on all other Muslims.”
Freedom House

This practical “Islamization” includes:

Even more disturbingly, girls as young as eight are being raped in Darfur and used as sex slaves in a systematic attempt to destroy family life.
Amnesty UK

One high-ranking aid worker said that "these rapes are built on tribal tensions and orchestrated to create a dynamic where the African tribal groups are destroyed."
Washington Post

Amnesty International and Christian Century estimate that 80% of the war's casualties have been women.

There is another factor in play. Sudan is an oil-rich country and the government wants to exploit this, however, before foreign oil companies can move in, the current civilians, their livestock and crops have to move out.

"Across the oil-rich regions of Sudan , the government is pursuing a 'scorched earth' policy to clear the land of civilians and to make way for the exploration and exploitation of oil by foreign oil companies."
Christian Aid

Lastly, it seems clear that simple racism based merely on skin color has become prevalent. One refugee told New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof that “the Arabs want to get rid of anyone with black skin. . . There are no blacks left”.
US Dept of State

The government of Sudan is the only one in the world today engaged in chattel slavery.
UN Special Reporter on Sudan, U.S. State Department

Under Sudanese law, Islamic non-believers are to be killed or taken as slaves. Thus, government-sponsored militias, conduct frequent slave raids of southern Dinka, Nuer, and Nuba villages . There are over 10,000 documented names of south Sudanese who have been abducted and sold into slavery in recent years however; some estimates put this figure closer to 20,000.
National Review, Hawaii University

Worldwide Apathy

The evidence speaks for itself – a government orchestrated genocide combined with extreme abuses of human rights on every level. However, regardless of this, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General minimized it by called it merely ‘a tragic humanitarian situation’.

With a rate of 3,000 deaths every day due to direct government action and forced starvation his comments remain highly inappropriate and simply incorrect.
Fox News

One might ask, in the face of such overwhelming evidence, why has this tragedy been completely overlooked by international focus. Firstly, the African continent remains politically sidelined – civil war, economic disaster and drought has left countries unstable and thus unable to play a strong hand on the world stage. Secondly, no-one wants to deal with Islamic fundamentalism – after lengthy and complicated problems in Afghanistan and Iraq, the main parties are unwilling to get involved in yet another conflict from which they cannot extricate themselves quickly and easily. Thirdly the world wants Sudan 's oil and thus needs some stable and controlling force in the country in order to effect deals. Whilst the current regime may be killing millions, they are strong, stable and in control and whilst that remains the case, Sudan remains an oil rich country that can be exploited.

It is time to bring this conflict to focus and conclude this chapter of history in Sudan. Without your concern and action, 3,000 people will continue to die every single day, thousands will become homeless and children will grow up with a legacy of atrocity and unending war. Help FreeMiddleEast take action.