: Ten Years After Rwanda, Sudan Crisis Grows Critical

With the ten year anniversary of the Rwanda genocide upon us, veteran Africa watchers are ringing the alarms over a similar situation, this time, in Sudan. No, it’s not that old Muslim North – Christian/Animist South conflict – that 20-year old war is actually on its way towards resolution, pending a decision of the future of Islamic law in Khartoum. This one involves Muslims (horse-riding Arab militias backed by the government) fighting Muslims (poor Africans, mainly farmers, in Sudan’s Darfur region). The fighting has devastated the latter, leaving a trail of refugees fleeing to neighboring Chad and on the brink of starvation – if the militias don’t get to them first. “My opinion is that we underestimated the situation here,” said Emile Belem, a UN aid official, “and the response has come too late.” Despite a last-minute truce between the two sides, the fate of those in the war zone is still largely unknown, with tales of ethnic cleansing seeping out of the region. “Young girls are whipped and raped. They kill the boys over 10,” said refugee Bichara Ali Diar. “There are piles of bodies outside in the open air. Nobody has been able to bury them.” With nearly one million displaced so far, the conflict is testing Western commitments to not let the genocide in Rwanda repeat itself. Sadly, the intra-Muslim fighting contrasts with the legacy of Islam in Rwanda, where Muslims were an island of sanity – protecting Tutsis and moderate Hutus from harm – amid the ethnic hatred. (Indeed, many Rwandans are flocking to Islam because of the collective behavior and attitude of the Muslim community.) However, for now, the only difference between Rwanda and Darfur, according to Mukesh Kapila, former UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, “is the numbers of dead, murdered, tortured, [and] raped.”

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.