Civil wars continue to ravage Africa. Even Kenya, a country long considered stable and peaceful, was recently torn by internal strife. Tragically, wars in Africa increasingly bear the face of the most vulnerable: women (because of gender violence that including mass rapes) and children (who are frequently abducted and forced to fight).
Atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and Uganda, and violent conflicts between Chad and Sudan and Eritrea and Ethiopia, are relegated to back pages in newspapers and rarely create much of a stir in the West.
Darfur is an exception, having caught the American imagination. The African Union and the United Nations are actively involved in exploring ways to stop the ongoing carnage, which has taken nearly 300,000 lives and has driven more than 2.7 million people from their homes. The conflict has spread into neighboring countries and is destabilizing the region.
The Bush administration has called the atrocities in Darfur a genocide and has imposed sanctions against the government of Sudan for backing the Janjaweed, the Arab militia responsible for the murders, rapes and pillage there. A national campaign organized by human rights and religious groups, as well as university students, urges divestment in Sudan. Some have called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics because of China’s support for the Sudanese government in the U.N. Security Council.
Several think-tanks have undertaken to understand the root causes of these conflicts and to find peaceful means to resolve them, while appreciating that each conflict is unique. Among them is a Ford Foundation effort which began four years ago to find long-term solutions. As part of this initiative, I spent the second week of June in Nairobi in the company of a dozen specialists and experts from the U.S. and several African countries. The Denver-based Africa Today Associates led the U.S. delegation.
These civil conflicts in Africa are undoubtedly complex, but their causes are widely understood: resources, drought, legacy of colonialism, and external interventions. Religion and ethnicity are often exploited, but are rarely root causes. For example, in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, drought, desertification and overpopulation have pitted camel-herding Arab nomads against African farmers. Throughout our consultations, it was often asserted that it is the inept governance of resources, coupled with the tendency of those in power to cling to it by all means, that constitutes the major problem. And distorted notions of democracy tend to make it part of the problem rather than a solution.
Efforts of the international community to help Darfur give hope but have met with limited success. A joint U.N. and African Union peacekeeping operation comprising 26,000 soldiers and police was launched at the start of this year, but the Sudanese government continues to resist the deployment of the force. Currently fewer than 50 percent are on the ground.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague has indicted two Sudanese officials for war crimes, and the U.N. Security Council has unanimously called upon the government to cooperate so that those charged are brought to justice. Recently the prosecutor of the ICC held the “whole state apparatus” of Sudan responsible for the atrocities in Darfur, which suggests that senior Sudanese government officials could also face war crimes charges.
Even President Hu Jin Tao of China has finally responded to intense external pressure and urged Sudan to permit the deployment of international peacekeepers and help in ending the violence in Darfur.
Africa itself must take the lead role in finding solutions to its wars, including the use of traditional dispute-resolution practices. But it cannot succeed without resources and assistance from the U.S. and European Union. The tragedy is that the political will in Africa is lacking and that South Africa, which should have provided the leadership, is not stepping up. The crises will never be resolved without wholehearted, multilateral, coordinated efforts.
Ved P. Nanda (vnanda@law.du.edu) is Marsh Professor of Law and Director of International Legal Studies at DU.
