1. The Darfur Crisis

2.  animosity between southern and northern Sudan is deeply rooted in the past  for thousands of years the South was raided for slaves  Islam is the religion of the north, Christianity and animism of the south  Islam did not spread to the south until the late 19 th century  Egypt (backed by the UK) subdued that part of the country and Sudan became a joint protectorate of Egypt and the UK until 1955, the year of independence  in 1983, the Muslim dominated government decided to impose sharia on the Sudan, including the Christian and animistic south  as a result there were two civil wars in Sudan at some point:  between Muslim-Arab dominated regime in Khartoum and black, non-Muslim rebels in the south (oil found complicates the matter). South Sudan gains independence from Sudan in 2011.  between black Africans in Darfur and the Arab dominated regime in Khartoum, although both groups are nominally speaking Muslim Background to the Darfur Crisis:

4. The Janjaweed Militia

5. Key Players in the Darfur Crisis since 2003:  Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) emerged in opposition to the regime in Khartoum  instead of seeking a peaceful solution, the government chose to resolve the conflict by force  in July 2004 the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) starts monitoring the conflict, but is under-equipped with 7,000 and has no mandate to provide security  in 2006 a Darfur Peace Agreement was signed between the government and groups in Darfur. However, the government in Khartoum refuses to let in a peacekeeping force of 17,300 based on a UN Security Council resolution  in 2007, the UN Security Council passed another resolution to deploy 26,000 peacekeepers under a UN-African Union hybrid mission (UNAMID).  in 2007 the International Criminal Court indicted two Sudanese men (Ahmed Haroun, who was the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, and Ali Kushayb, a Janjaweed militia leader) for crimes against humanity. Both men remain free.  violence and insecurity persist throughout the region and has spread into Chad

7. Dimensions of the Darfur Crisis since 2003  the humanitarian crisis is one of the worst on the African continent  at least 300,000 men, women and children have been killed  2.6 million people have been displaced and often live in camps for refugees (IDPs)  an unknown number of women and girls have been abducted, raped and abused  a generation of children has reached school-age not knowing a home  in addition to the violence, there is widespread malnourishment, compacted by a sharp and sudden rise in global food prices (why are prices for food rising)?  to this day, violence and humanitarian crisis persists, and UNAMID has not even been fully deployed yet and lacks both mandate and capacity to provide security  complicating factor oil / China as 1 of 5 permanent members of UN Security Council  the Darfur Crisis is still going on today (2014)