Social Science Research Council

Hundreds of civilians are feared killed in Jebel Marra, and tens of thousands thought to be displaced without relief within the mountain, as government forces besiege the stronghold of the absentee SLA Chairman, Abdul Wahid Mohamed al Nur, after a month-long land and air offensive. The little information that is coming out is sporadic and [...]

A new publication by the Small Arms Survey, “Supply and Demand: Arms flows and holdings in Sudan,” provides the most up-to-date assessments of the military capacities of Sudan’s contending parties.
The briefing documents the ongoing supplies of weaponry to the governments in Khartoum and Juba. Among the major supplies to the Sudan Government are Belarus, China, [...]

This article emerges from an assignment which the author completed for Dr. Jo L. Husbands-Rosenberg at Georgetown University in Spring 2009. Using only open-source material — whatever could be obtained with a library card and the World Wide Web — students were asked to profile the commercial defense habits of a particular state actor. What [...]

The AUPD Report includes an Appendix that compiles the existing data for violent fatalities in Darfur from 1 January 2008 until 31 July 2009. As many people have not read that part of the report (pages 107-115), it is excerpted and reproduced here: AUPD Annex B fatalities in Darfur
Some assistance may be helpful in reading [...]

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 [...]