Migration case study – Forced international migration
From this case study you will need to know:
- Where Darfur is
- When did forced migration start?
- Who is involved in the conflict?
- What are the causes of the migration?
- What are the economic, social and environmental impacts of migration on exporting and receiving countries/regions?
There has been an ongoing civil war in Darfur since February 2003.
Forced migration continues today.
1)The Janjaweed
A militia group recruited from nomadic pastoral Arab tribes. They are camel herders. It is rumoured that they were armed, recruited and supported by the Sudan government (under the leadership of its president Omar al-Bashir)
2)Two rebel armies, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEMs) and the Sudan Liberation movement.
They are both recruited from Black ethnic groups who make a living as arable farmers.
The current Darfur conflict is a caused by a combination of political,environmental and economic factors.
One of the main economic causes was the conflict over farmland between pastoral and arable farmers. The desperate need for farmland by both groups was caused in part by environmental pressures and changing land ownership patterns. The fight for decent land led to violence.
Pastoral nomadism is the main means of livelihood for many Darfurians.
The desert region of northern Darfur is inhabited by camel-owning nomads who were known locally as abbala (camel owners). These nomads had to rely on customary rights to migrate and pasture their animals in areas dominated by arable farmers. As the nomads moved between the northern and the southern part of the region, specific arrangements for animal routes were made by their leaders and those of the farming communities, and these arrangements were sanctioned by the government.
The system worked for decades until the drought of the 1980s. As the climate changed, the expected dates of crop harvest became unpredictable, and many arable farmers began to switch to animal farming and needed grazing land.
At the same time, the pastoralists were also feeling the effects of the drought as grazing land in northern Darfur shrank considerably. Faced with this situation, camel nomads insisted on maintaining the traditional arrangements, which became a source of major clashes.
The struggle over diminishing resources in the 1980s led to several clashes between pastoralists and arable farmers and a lot of migration.
Environmental degradation and competition over resources can be understood as principal causes of communal conflict in Darfur, but the ongoing carnage is also a product of a long history of ethnic hate between Arab and non Arab groups.The Sudanese government even armed these groups and set them against each other.
The use of this tactic in Darfur is best shown by the creation of the infamous Janjaweed army, most of who hailed from Arabic-speaking communities. In conjunction with the Sudanese army, the Janjaweed engaged in a massive campaign of violence and pillaging of non-Arab communities. This led to massive forced migration to avoid conflict areas.
It is well known that environmental degradation and competition over shrinking natural resources have played, and continue to play, a major role in conflicts in the Sahelian countries such as Mali, Niger, and Chad. Darfur is no exception.
The Darfur region consists of a number of climatic zones.
- The southern part lies within the rich savannah, which receives considerable rainfall.
- The central part is a plateau where the mountain of Jebel Marra dominates the landscape.
- The northern part of Darfur is a desert that extends all the way to the Egyptian and Libyan borders.
Image adapted from
Crop farming is the main economic activity of the majority of Dafur’s population (who live in the more fertile south). Cultivation depends heavily on rainfall and land fertility, rendering the population vulnerable to climatic changes and natural disasters. For example in the 1980s and 1990s, drought and desertification, combined to produce a sharp decline in food production and with it widespread famine. This led to mass migration in order to find food and water in relief camps.
Darfur has seen a sizable population growth since the 1980s. Combined with drought and desertification this has put a massive strain on natural resources and led to migration.
Social
For the past four years, the remote Sudanese region of Darfur has been the scene of a bloody conflict that has led to the death of thousands of people and the displacement of more than three million (UNICEF figures: see link below*). The United Nations has described it as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”.
*
The carnage caused by the Janjaweedfighting against the JEMs and the Sudan Liberation Movement has resulted in the death of more than 300,000 Darfurians (many of whom were innocent civilians caught in the conflict, deliberately killed by the Janjaweed or died of malnutrition or disease).
The forced migration of almost 3 million people in Darfur to date has led to the creation of many refugee or IDP (Internationally Displaced Persons) camps in Darfur (see map below).
The overcrowded and cramped camps for displaced persons are now the only place of refuge for migrants, who face serious shortages of sanitary facilities. Water is scarce and the threat of waterborne disease is becoming acute, as many of the camps are little more than open sewers. Outbreaks of cholera or dysentery could quickly claim tens of thousands of lives in addition to those already claimed by violence, disease, and malnutrition. Migrants rely on outside aid agencies for food, shelter and medicine. However, the aid efforts are being hampered by the Sudanese government, and constant attacks on camps and aid convoys by the Janjaweed.
The lost of loved ones, homes, livelihoods and possessions has caused a great deal of stress to those linked with the events.
REFUGEE CAMP, SUDAN. Darfur. Children playing among thousands of makeshift huts in El-Geneina refugee camp. The temporary homes are built from branches and plastic sheets. More than 70,000 people have suffered and died from diseases caused by lack of sanitation in these camps.
Human rights abuses and genocide:
Human rights groups have accused the Sudanese government - under the control of its presidentOmar al-Bashir - of torture, genocide and severe repression of political and religious freedoms.
The nature of the attacks on African villages in Darfur-as reported by numerous human rights groups-makes clear genocidal intent. Genocide is the systematic killing of a racial, ethnic, religious or cultural group. The US government and aid agencies are convinced this is exactly what is happening to non-Arab civilian migrants in Darfur.
Janjaweed assaults on non-Arab villages, typically conducted alongside Sudan’s regular military forces (including helicopter gunships and bombers), have been comprehensively destructive of both human life and livelihood: men and boys killed en masse, women and girls raped or abducted. Thriving villages have had buildings burned, water sources poisoned, and foodstocks destroyed.
As a result of the conflict, agricultural production has largely come to a halt in Darfur. Janjaweed assaults on non-Arab villages and farmland areas have led to the burning of croplands, the destruction of irrigation systems and seed stocks and fruit trees destroyed. Cattle have been looted on a massive scale, and most of those not looted have died from lack of water and food, as people flee into the desertified areas of Darfur.
Moreover, there is no sign that the current planting season will yield a significant harvest. Huge civilian populations-well over two million people-will be dependent on food aid for the foreseeable future.
The United Nations estimates that in the very near future 3.5 million people will be in urgent need of food assistance due to the destruction of land (the total population of Darfur is approximately 7.5 million).
Decades of drought helped trigger Darfur's violence as rival groups fought over scarce water and arable land. Now, experts fear the war and its refugee crisis are making the environment even worse, leaving the land increasingly uninhabitable.
Average annual rainfall has dropped by nearly half since figures were first collected in 1917. This is blamed by the Sudanese government on climate change.
Image taken from
In 2003, when the large-scale conflict began, a mere 7.48 inches of rain fell on El Fasher the capital of Northern Darfur. Meanwhile, Darfur's population has increased over sixfold over the past four decades, to 7.5 million.That created a strain on resources beyond the capability of the tribes to manage.
As the desert closed in, the Arab nomads migrated farther south, bringing their herds of cattle and camels toward lands that southern non -Arab villagers were farming. Those herds destroyed fields and worsened soil erosion. With land being made unfit for farming
Nomads and forced migrants have cut down many of the trees in the war zone for firewood. These trees were crucial to farmers, because they help stabilize the soil and provide shade for crops. Without them, it will be even harder for farmers now in refugee camps to return to their villages.
Of the three million forced migrants from Darfur, 250,000 to date have sought safety and migrated to refugee camps in neighbouring Chad.
Many of these are refugee camps are along a 600km (372 mile) stretch of the border and remain vulnerable to attacks from the Sudan side.
Chad's eastern areas have a similar ethnic make-up to Darfur and the violence has spilled over the border area, with the neighbours accusing one another of supporting each other's rebel groups.
In November 2006, 20 villages in Chad were set on fire by the Janjaweed army who crossed the border in search of non-Arab migrants from Darfur. They raped hundreds of women before they set fire to properties in a practise called ‘scorched earth clearance’. This has led to the displacement of many thousands of Chadians from their own lands.
The villagers armed mostly with bows and arrows were no match for the heavily armed Janjaweed army.
Listen yourself to NBCs news story of the events in Chad
Conflict has arisen between Sudanese migrants and the people of eastern Chad due to the competition for natural resources such as water. The supply of drinking water in the camps in the east of Chad is below international norms due to over consumption.
Seven camps out of the total 12 in Chad lack enough latrines, creating protection risks for women and children.
There are a number of economic costs for Chad.
- A loss in farming revenue and lands due to the destruction of arable and pastoral lands by ‘scorched earth clearance’ and over use of firewood by refugees.
- The cost of policing and fighting the Janjaweed armies that have crossed international borders and attacked camps in eastern Chad.
- In May 2008 Sudan closed its borders to Chad and put a halt on trade. This was mostly in agricultural goods such as cotton and cattle exported by Chad. This has led a massive loss in revenue for the country.
Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the refugees from Sudan are putting a strain on already scarce resources in a similar way to Darfur. Refugees are stripping the land of vegetation for firewood and building materials for shelters. This has led to soil erosion and lose of farmland in Southern Chad around the refugee camps.
The water table has lowered so badly in and around the eastern Chad camps that it now has to be transported there by truck. Wells are drying up so the population of nearby towns are getting quite upset. The effect on the soils themselves and their fertility is devastating and they may well turn to desert permanently.
In the camps in Northern Chad especially the water reserves are under more pressure due to its granite geology. This means much of the water reserves are held in surface storage or almost impossible to build wells through. Via a combination of climate pressure and refugee demand this has led to a water crisis.