Social Science Research Council

The advent of the Thuraya phone has radically changed warfare in across the Sahara desert, as illustrated in the case of Darfur. Twenty five years ago, I remember travelling across Darfur with no phone lines, with telecommunication possible only through ageing two-way radios in the police stations. The mail was slow and unreliable. The only [...]

The referendum on national unity scheduled for 2011 is an existential crisis for Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP). This article examines the danger of war in the coming months.
Outlook for the NCP
The NCP is in a unique position. The most lucrative oil regions are along the north/south border — ground zero for serious ethnic [...]

A new report from the Small Arms Survey by Julie Flint, “Beyond Janjaweed: Understanding the Militias of Darfur,” examines the Arab militia in Darfur, through the stages of mobilization, mutiny and their current dance of distrust with the Khartoum authorities.
Julie Flint’s report is the first extended description and analysis of the Arab militia in the [...]

Abd al-Wahab Abdalla (25 March) says “The worst massacre of the last 12 months was by JEM! It killed 128 Meidob over 2 days.”
There have been a number of allusions on this blog to the unrest at JEM’s base in eastern Chad on January 1 this year, but hard facts and clearly identified sources are [...]

There has been much controversy over the numbers of people killed in Darfur. It is increasingly possible to move beyond extrapolation to an actual count of incidents and fatalities. Earlier this week, the Genocide Intervention Network (GI-Net) published its analysis of fatalities due to violence in Darfur, based on available reports for 1 January-8 September [...]

Sudan is in a state of high tension at the moment, and we face a dangerous month ahead. Darfur is witnessing its worst fighting for a year.
The immediate cause of the tension is the expected arrest warrant to be issued by the ICC, the immediate cause of the fighting is JEM’s offensive.
The Sudan Government sees [...]

As more details emerge about JEM’s assault on the national capital at the weekend, it is becoming clear that this was a solo operation by JEM directed by its leader Khalil Ibrahim. Its aim was nothing less than taking power.
The role of Chadian President Idriss Deby is now clearer. For two years, Deby armed [...]

Saturday’s battle in the streets of Omdurman was a defeat for the prospects of peace, democracy and human rights. The calculations of the leadership of the Justice and Equality Movement are puzzling–the attack looks much like an act of reckless military escalation, bold and daring no doubt, but possibly suicidal. But it would be surprising [...]

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.