Political Insecurity and Instability in Sudan

15 April 2009: An Aljazeera Exclusive reveals how the "Sudan Rebels Fight to Forge a New Country."


The largest force is the Justice and Equality Movement. This group consists of over 38 million people in 24 Sudanese states, Al-Jazeera English (Muslim intl. news provider) reports. JEM is one of several groups aligned with Khalil Ibrahim. JEM is majorly comprised of Al-Zaghawa tribesmen in Southern Sudan.

Picture found on Publik15's Flickr.

JEM is one of several rebel movements aligned with Ibrahim. These factions call themselves the United Regions of Sudan (URS). Although they deny the claims made by their government, it is believed that the groups are supported by the president of Chad (also part of the Al-Zaghawa tribe). JEM is the only of the united group that signed the peace treaty with the Sudanese Government in 2005; even so, they have cooperated with URS in numerous attacks on Khartoum, allegedly funded by the government of Chad.

The groups were once divided on cultural grounds, but they have overcome that in this uncertain, vulnerable time for the Sudanese government in Khartoum. The URS leaders argue that 95% of the countries wealth (oil) is controlled by the "North" and Arab elite; meanwhile, they only see a meager 5% and they want "more power and more money".

Chief Khalil Ibrahim told Agence France Presse (AFP) that he refused to attend the Arab League summit in Qatar to protest the cooperation with Omar al-Bashir, a mass murderer, and their disregard for the ICC warrant. Many of these long-oppressed people are out for blood and will not cease attacks until the government surrenders or falls.

JEM and Ibrahim will surely play a large role in forging a new political system for Sudan. I, however, am unsure that any single group in Sudan ought to be given a primary rule in the future state. These people have been through and lot and they may be out for revenge. They may not even be able to handle the flood of power control they obtain. No, I think that the new Darfur would be best divided into a more culturally representative democracy.

I am only speculating and not offering any solutions. I, being a journalist raised in North America, am unfamiliar with the ideologies of the general public in Sudan. Any plan for "democracy" cannot be created in the image of western-style democracy. This has been seen to fail repeatedly.

A democracy will only truly survive if it is rebuilt with the remains of a tattered nation. It must embrace and encompass the diversity, cultural integrity and ideological collectivity of that nation. One cannot just barge in, create a democracy as you see it and then leave expecting the nation not to fall into chaos. An ethnically diverse nation like Sudan needs to unite the factions and forge a system of cultural checks and balances. Resources need be redistributed and a new economic plan adopted as well, to ensure the long term survival of Sudan.

There will never be peace when populations struggle for the bare necessities, when men and women die daily from starvation and lack of clean, accessible water while others sit in palaces eating feasts and drinking champagne.