Arab Nomads, “Not Pro-Anything,” Also Suffer in Darfur

Analysts often categorize the violence in Darfur as a conflict between the nomadic Arabs and agricultural Africans of Western Sudan. The victims of the violence, however, belie an overly simplistic division. Intermarriage, commerce and other contacts have long entwined identity throughout the region, but drought, land shortages and government support for the Janjaweed militias, which are guilty of countless human-rights violations, have recently exacerbated tensions. Traditionally nomadic Arab groups suffer along with their neighbors from Khartoum's policy of arming militias. Aid agencies largely overlook these victims because of the Arab-African paradigm. Forced to flee homes and seek relief, Arabs cannot maintain their nomadic livelihoods, another example of the mind-numbing purposelessness in the plight of the refugees. – YaleGlobal