UN security council expresses concern over imminent attack on Darfur, Sudan

The United Nations Security Council has expressed great concern over an imminent attack on al-Fashir in North Darfur Region by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The world’s largest displacement crisis occurred last year with the onset of the wars in Sudan between the Sudanese army and the parliamentary RSF.

The RSF have been blamed for campaigns of ethnically driven killings against non-Arab groups and other abuses in West Darfur as the group seized control over four other Darfur state capitals.

UN’s security council has expressed its concern over imminent strike by the RSF and their allied militias against the city of al-Fashir. The council has also called on the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF to end the build-up of military forces and to take measures to contain the situation.

The council was warned that about 800,000 people in al-Fashir are in extreme danger with the advancement of violence and the threats to unleash bloody intercommunal strife throughout Darfur.

A little History About Darfur

Darfur (Meaning ‘Realm of the Fur‘) is a region of western Sudan. Dār is an Arabic word meaning “home [of]” – the region was named Dardaju while ruled by the Daju, who migrated from Meroë c. 350 AD, and it was renamed Dartunjur when the Tunjur ruled the area.

Darfur was an independent sultanate for several hundred years until 1874, when it fell to the Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr. The region was later invaded and incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. As an administrative region, Darfur is divided into five federal states: Central Darfur, East Darfur, North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur. Because of the War in Darfur between Sudanese government forces and the indigenous population, the region has been in a state of humanitarian emergency and genocide since 2003. The factors include religious and ethnic rivalry, and the rivalry between farmers and herders.

The first historical mention of the word Fur occurs in 1664 in the account by J. M. Vansleb, a German traveler, of a visit to Egypt. It is claimed that, like sūdān, fūr means “blacks“, and was the name given by the early light-colored Berber sultans of Darfur to the original inhabitants of the country such as the Binga, Banda, etc. As the historic dynasty’s physical appearance became more “Africanized” from intermarriage with black wives and concubines, the appearance of the sultans darkened correspondingly and they became known by the appellation of their subjects, Fūr.

Darfur covers an area of 493,180 square kilometers (190,420 sq mi), approximately the size of mainland Spain. It is largely a semi-desert plateau with the Marrah Mountains (Jebel Marra), a range of volcanic peaks rising up to 3,042 meters (9,980 ft) of topographic prominence, in the center of the region.

The region’s main towns are Al Fashir, Geneina, and Nyala.