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| “ | The report demonstrates beyond all doubt that the last two years have been little short of hell on earth for our fellow human beings in Darfur. | „ |
| ~ Then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, referring to a 2005 report detailing the Darfur Genocide. |
The Darfur Genocide is the systematic killing and ethnic cleansing of ethnic Darfuri people which has occurred during the ongoing conflict in Western Sudan. It has become known as the first genocide of the 21st century.
The genocide, which is being carried out against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes, has led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict several people (most notably former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who was, at the time, the first sitting head of state to be indicted by a national tribunal) for crimes against humanity, rape, forced transfer and torture. According to Eric Reeves, more than one million children have been "killed, raped, wounded, displaced, traumatized, or endured the loss of parents and families".
The crisis and ongoing conflict in Sudan's Western Darfur Region have developed from several separate events. The first is a civil war that occurred between the Khartoum national governments and two rebel groups in Darfur: the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army. The rebel groups were initially formed in February 2003 due to Darfur's "political and economic marginalization by Khartoum". In April 2003, when the rebel groups attacked the military airfield and kidnapped an air force general, the government launched a counterattack. It led to a response from the Khartoum government where they armed militia forces to eliminate the rebellion. This resulted in mass violence against the citizens in Darfur.
A second factor is a civil war that has occurred between the Christians, the animist Black southerners, and the Arab dominated government since Sudan's independence from the United Kingdom in 1956. The violence that took place for about 11 years left more than a million people displaced by the hostilities: fleeing to other places around Sudan or across the border to Chad.
The ethnic conflict in Darfur has been persistent, with Arab racism at its roots. Darfur is home to six million people and several dozen tribes. Darfur is split into two: "those who claim Black 'African' descent and primarily practice sedentary agriculture, and those who claim 'Arab' descent and are mostly semi nomadic livestock herders".
In 2013 the United Nations (UN) estimated that up to 300,000 people had been killed during the genocide, in response the Sudanese government claimed that the number of deaths was "grossly inflated". By 2015, it was estimated that the death toll stood between 100,000 and 400,000.
The violence continued into 2016 where the government allegedly used chemical weapons against the local population in Darfur. This led to millions being displaced due to the hostile environment. Over 3 million lives are heavily impacted by the conflict.