Darfur Story

Imagine, it’s a Sunday evening, you and your family are sitting around your kitchen table, enjoying dinner and each other’s company. All of a sudden, armed men grab your husband and son, shoot them dead, and steal you and your daughter.
Doesn’t this seem like something out of a horror movie? To us, it does. But this is the sad reality in Darfur, which is located in the western part of Sudan in Africa. It is not a civil war, it is not a small conflict, it is genocide. And it’s been happening for the past five years right under our noses.
A government backed Arab militia known as the Janjaweed has been launching campaigns to eliminate or displace communities of African tribal farmers. Villages have been completely demolished, women and girls have been raped, men and boys have been murdered, and the community food and water supplies have also been targeted. The worst part of all of this, is that the government (although it hasn’t been publicly admitted) has been behind the Janjaweed one hundred percent throughout this whole conflict. The Sudanese government has been supplying the Janjaweed with airplanes and artillery since this started happening five years ago. Since 2003, at least four hundred thousand people have been murdered. Another two million were forced to flee their homes and are now living in refugee camps in Chad. The Sudanese government, however, insist that only nine thousand people died, when it is quite evident this is not the case. The people of Darfur are somewhat fighting a war on two fronts. On one side, the armed conflict is made up mainly of the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed (who are opposed to any religion which isn’t Islam). On the other side, a number of rebel groups, especially the Sudan Liberation Movement, who claim they do not support the Janjaweed, but have provided funds and assistance in attacking the innocent in Darfur. Usually violence of this caliber has some sort of reasoning, or cause. It is very hard however, to pin the...