Darfur after the war - Essay Example

Aftermaths of the Darfur War Darfur region exists in the African continent’s middle underneath the Sahara Desert. The Darfur conflict caused abandonment of homes and settlement in the refugee camps of almost 2.5 million people that made up a third of the whole regional population of Darfur. Violence caused during the conflict in Darfur caused the murder of more than a dozen international aid organizations’ employees. Among the most difficult aspects of helping out the people of Darfur was approaching the hotspots.

Ships that provided Darfur with the aid of food were docking over the ports along the continent’s three sides. The three sides were Cameroon, Port Sudan, and Libya. The humanitarian food supplies needed to be transported in all-terrain vehicles over large land areas upon arrival in Africa. The rainy season made the land routes to the camps of refugees in Sudan and Chad impassable. Even after the passage of so many years since the conflict of Darfur, it is incredible that the refugee camps are still being filled by new Darfurians.

“A decade since the beginning of the Darfur conflict the region’s people are still suffering. Millions have been forced from their homes and 2.7 million people still rely on food aid for survival” (Featherstone cited in Gov.uk, 2013). Physical and sexual assaults on the residents of these camps are reported almost daily. The already meager livelihood of these people is worsened by the lack of security. As a result of these challenges, the effort of helping these refugees is amongst the largest operations of humanitarian relief in the contemporary age.

Numerous countries around the world in general and especially the US have heavily donated humanitarian aid to the refugees of Darfur. These operations include but are not limited to providing the refugees with food, clean water, shelter, nutrition, education, healthcare, activities that generate income, and protection from diseases. Besides, the UK is also playing an important role in alleviating the sufferings and pains of the refugees of Darfur by providing them with food, shelter, and healthcare facilities.

The UK is also providing its judges and policemen with training to help them make the fragile communities stable. The environment of Darfur is dangerous and very volatile and poses numerous challenges to both the refugees and the external donors of aid. According to the UN, the death toll as a result of the Darfur genocide is over 300,000 whereas this number is estimated to be at least 400,000 by the former UN undersecretary-general (Crisis Watch Network, 2011). Warrants against a Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb and Ahmed Haroun, the former Minister of State for the Interior were issued by the International Criminal Court’s judges in April, 2007 for the war crimes.

However, the government of Sudan said that the judges of the International Criminal Court did not have the jurisdiction of trying the citizens of Sudan and thus release of the two men to the Hague authorities was refused by the Sudan government. Hague finally charged the President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir in July, 2010 for orchestrating the genocide of Darfur. References:Crisis Watch Network 2011, Darfur Genocide aftermath, [Online] Available at http://www.crisiswatch.net/international/DarfurGenocideAftermath.

html [accessed: 2 April 2013]. Gov.uk 2013, Sudan: Darfur still suffering ten years after conflict began, [Online] Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sudan-darfur-still-suffering-ten-years-after-conflict-began [accessed: 2 April 2013].