Social Science Research Council

“Angry Youths become a Force in Darfur,” by Neil MacFarquhar in The New York Times on December 20, describes an undercurrent of the ongoing war that often goes unnoticed: an increasingly militarized conflict between youth and traditional leadership within internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. The article succeeds in exposing a few key points, namely that [...]

The political shape in Sudan is tense. The humanitarian conditions are deteriorating and so is the security condition of the whole country. But there is no limit to Al-Bashir’s predicaments; the shadow of the ICC prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo is not only looming but closing on him.
Realizing the complexity of the impending [...]

Human rights violations against civilians in Darfur have continued to be the focus of many reports, including the UN Human Rights Special Repporteur, the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and most recently the report of the Darfur Consortium. These reports come almost four years after the main two reports into the crimes committed in [...]

The Overseas Development Institute’s Humanitarian Policy Group has produced some of the best evidence-based analysis of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, including studies of how displaced people have sustained their (diminished, vulnerable) livelihoods, the trajectories of the nutritional crises in the region, and the complex ways in which pastoral and agricultural livelihoods have been transformed. [...]

“The case for drought preparedness” examines the vulnerability of Darfur’s towns, IDP camps and cities to years of low rainfall or drought in the context of the conflict and displacement. The rapid growth in Darfur’s towns and cities in the last five years places unprecedented concentrations of demands on Darfur’s low and variable water [...]

Brendan Bromwich & Margie Buchanan-Smith

This report by the UN Environment Programme highlight the impact of displacement and rapid urbanisation on the natural resources of Darfur, specifically on water resources and forestry. The work is driven by the recognition that Darfurians are dependent on natural resources for their basic needs and livelihoods.
“Destitution, distortion [...]

In 2000, an interviewer brought me a data form in the Eastern DR Congo reporting that two children had died of fear during an attack. I was so incapable of imagining this, that I had the interviewer take me back to the household where this had been reported. They had three huts all [...]

The killing of civilians is nothing new, writes Hugo Slim. A historic and global phenomenon, the killing of civilians does however seem more present than ever, with round the clock news reporting of the horrors civilians endure. Political and public outcry is growing into a steady roar. Just last month, President Karzai [...]

This blog hosts occasional debates on significant books, relevant to Darfur and the wider questions that it raises. Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in War, by Hugo Slim, is one such book: it raises a series of profound questions about how and why civilians are killed in war—and how and why they are not [...]

It is widely believed that President Bashir will stop travelling abroad, fearing the execution of a (potentially sealed) ICC arrest warrant against him. Whilst cautious, from a legal perspective this may not be necessary. Under current international law, states, whether parties to the Rome Statute or not, would still have to accept Bashir’s procedural immunity [...]