Social Science Research Council

It’s frequently observed that Darfur’s conflict has “spilled over” into Chad and Central African Republic. It is probably more accurate to say that Darfur has become part of a regional nexus of conflict that includes these two countries, characterized by a political pattern in which both local elites (tribal chiefs, militia commanders, small-town political leaders) [...]

This post is also available in French (PDF, 96KB).

Land has often been described as a key motivation for the Arabs and non-Arabs who actively participated in the “Janjaweed” in Darfur and southeast Chad (see my article “Darfur: a Conflict for Land” in Alex de Waal (ed.), War in Darfur and the Search for Peace.) One of the primary traits of the Darfur crisis (like the Dar Sila crisis in Chad) can be described as a split between those members of the population with territories (hawakir) due to traditional, mainly pre-colonial land rights and those who have none – a split which is not exactly the same as the ethnic divisions between Arabs and non-Arabs that are so often presented without nuance.

April’s issue of African Affairs contains an interesting article by Marielle Debos.
Entitled “Fluid Loyalties in a Regional Crisis: Chadian ‘Ex-Liberators’ in the Central African Republic” it examines a neglected pattern of the regional crisis in Darfur, Chad, and the Central African Republic, namely the cross-border activities of combatants with fluid loyalties. The trajectories [...]

A report by Jérôme Tubiana for the Small Arms Survey, “The Chad-Sudan Proxy War and the “Darfurization” of Chad: Myths and Reality,” provides excellent analysis of the Chadian conflict. It is a fine succinct run down of the domestic crisis in Chad and the interstate war by proxy between Chad and Sudan, including a compendium [...]

Editors note: We are pleased to have this contribution from Daniel Large, a UK-based scholar on China—Sudan relations who has published widely on the topic. He recently authored a piece, “China and the Changing Context of Development in Sudan,” for the journal Development.

Europe and America have tended to regard China as the Great Hope or the Great Demon, moving historically between binary projections of China as an enlightened model to learn from or as an example to avoid. In the case of Sudan today, however, China is paradoxically held up to represent both: it is supposedly the route to peace in Darfur but it is also responsible for ‘empowering evil’ in Sudan.

Steven Spielberg’s decision not to continue his role as artistic director[...]

Alex’s posting on Chad was cited in a New York Times article: “Fighting in Chad’s Capital Ebbs, But Problems Loom,” by Lydia Polgreen (7 February 2008). Polgreen referred to Making Sense of Darfur blog by name, though the online version didn’t link to us, unfortunately. In addition, Alex recently published an article on Chad in Time magazine’s European edition: “A Dangerous Friend” (6 February 2008).

The current conflict in Chad and Darfur is a reprise of the “thirty years’ war” that embroiled Chad, Libya and Darfur from the mid-1960s until the early 1990s. This was not only an important sideshow in the Cold War–the CIA’s biggest covert operation in Africa in the 1980s–but has had a profound and lasting impact on the whole region. Millard Burr and Robert Collins’ book, Darfur: The Long Road to Disaster, tells the story–but needs a new edition.

The war for Chad is not over. It is likely to become more bloody and involve a wider humanitarian disaster before any solutions can be grasped. The next week will be critical for the future of the country–and for the wider region, including Darfur, as well.
Last weekend’s battle in the Chadian capital N’djamena came as [...]