Only difference between Iraq and Africa hotspots is the color of the people.
Well, one of the aspects of the conflict in Darfur, as I understand it, is that the government of Sudan is run by "Arab" blacks, while the residents of Darfur are not considered Arab. However, most of the people in Darfur are apparently Sunni muslims, but there are African Christians in the south as well. Thus, this is predominantly a "racist" war being waged by a government that holds a strong Islamist ideology (recall that Al Qai'da found refuge in Sudan for a period of years).
crimesofwar.org
Secondly, it's a struggle over oil as well.. Most of Sudan's oil lies in the south of Sudan:
It is true that ethnic rivalries and racism play a part in today's conflict in Darfur. Seen in the larger context of Sudan's civil war, however, Darfur is not an anomaly; it is an extension of that conflict. The real driving force behind the North-South conflict became clear after Chevron discovered oil in southern Sudan in 1978. The traditional competition for water at the fringes of the Sahara was transformed into quite a different struggle. The Arab-dominated government in Khartoum redrew Sudan's jurisdictional boundaries to exclude the oil reserves from southern jurisdiction. Thus began Sudan's 21-year-old North-South civil war. The conflict then moved south, deep into Sudan, into wetter lands that form the headwaters of the Nile and lie far from the historical competition for water.
Oil pipelines, pumping stations, well-heads, and other key infrastructure became targets for the rebels from the South, who wanted a share in the country's new mineral wealth, much of which was on lands they had long occupied. John Garang, leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), declared these installations to be legitimate targets of war. For a time, the oil companies fled from the conflict, but in the 1990s they began to return. Chinese and Indian companies were particularly aggressive, doing much of their drilling behind perimeters of bermed earth guarded by troops to protect against rebel attacks. It was a Chinese pipeline to the Red Sea that first brought Sudanese oil to the international market.
commondreams.org
Btw, I don't agree with the overall tone of condemning oil exploration/exploitation as presented in that article. I'm merely using the article to represent the fact that Sudan apparently has tremendous oil reserves lying within the contested regions of the country, thus the conflict is just as much a struggle for control over economic resources.
Ethnic strife and economic resources.. Sounds like the very same conflict we're seeing in Iraq.
Hawk |
