The worst genocide since Hitler took place in Sudan. No, not in Darfur, but in southern Sudan and the Nuba mountains. From 1983 to 2000 at least 1.9 million died, all of them black Africans, most of them Christians.
Sudan is two countries that the British made into one: the north is Muslim and Arabic-speaking. The people are dark but not black Africans. The south is black and mostly Christian. It has two-thirds of Sudan’s oil.
The government that carried out the genocide was run by Arab-speaking Muslims from the north. It was not just a case of genocide: it was also a jihad, a Muslim holy war, the largest in living memory.
As a genocide it is upstaged in the Western press by Rwanda, where 800, 000 were killed, and even Darfar, where 300,000 have died so far. Both are much smaller genocides.
As a jihad it is upstaged by the one fought by Al Qaeda and the Taliban, which, so far, has been far less deadly, though it is directed against Western interests.
The genocide was directed against the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk and Nuba. It sold tens of thousands of them as slaves. It destroyed Christian churches, schools and hospitals. It wanted to clear the lands where there was oil.
The government kept food from reaching the south knowing full well that people there were dying of hunger.
For example in 1998 in Bahr al-Ghazal, the very province that Alek Wek fled more than ten years before, government bombings spread terror and caused 700,000 Dinka to flee their homes. Then the government stopped Westerners from flying in food, causing 70,000 to die of hunger.
In the Nuba mountains in the centre of the country the Nuba were sent to “peace villages” where the women were raped by government soldiers – to make their offspring lighter (the Nuba are very dark). Their children were taken from them and sent to the north to serve as slaves. Over 100,000 Nuba “disappeared” never to be seen again.
The south was fighting a war of independence against the north, it is true, and the rains in those years were not always the best. But if you look at scale of the killing and who was killed and what the government did and did not do, it is clear that it was bent on wiping out its own citizens based on race and religion. That is genocide.
For some reason all this got very little press in the West and few knew about it. I find that very odd. Darfur and Rwanda had no trouble getting plenty of press.
In any case word of it in America spread mainly through churches. It became an issue with the Christian right, a big part of President Bush’s base. And so America pushed for a peace deal for southern Sudan and got one in 2005. But now the Sudanese government is doing the very same thing in Darfur, where the people are black too, but in this case not Christian.
See also:
Abagond 
that is horrific and you ou hear very very little about it, that’s sad. You’ve got the war in Congo too and you NEVER hear anything about it ever and its the worst one since WWII.
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it happened befor and it will always reacuure..whenever a government wants to cover its horrible acts it uses a religious facade..knowing that the south have tow thirds of the oil makes it so obvious that it’s sheer politics..it really pisses me off to know that people could exploit such a sacred thing for their inferior interests..but what pisses me more is that people are actually ABLE to exchange priceless lives for oil! it is really sad.
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I just spent several months in south Sudan. what you say is dead on – and the western world is generally oblivious. In the small village where we were, 21 young men died in an ambush, killed by rebels armed by the North, exclusively part of a Northern plan to foster more insecurity and fear leading up to the 2011 referendum.
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THe picture that goes with the post is an oil concession map of Sudan from 1997, from during the genocide. Click on it to see it larger. It is pretty chilling to think how the oil below the ground is more valuable than the people who live above it if those people are black. That is just how the government in Sudan has acted down through the years.
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another topic – 100s of black christians in enitrea are being held by the government in metal boxes 4 feet by 4 feet…without any sort of trial…simply because they are christian.
Enitrea is located in east africa near the red sea.
Two news stories on the subject.
http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/CWN/041604eritrea.aspx
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7015033.stm
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“The people are dark but not black Africans.”
How do you figure??? As long as you consider yourself black Abagond then so are they. http://www.idea.int/parties/images/khartoum0701.jpg
There’s always been different kinds of Africans with varying complexions and facial featuures. Some ethnic groups in Sudan such as the Beja and Nubians naturally have narrower facial features than others like the Dinka of the South.
It’s offensive and patronizing to always make something involving black people a race issue. Like blacks have to only be on the oppressed side. Both sides are black and the real issue is religion!
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Thank you for stating the facts and not showing pictures of the dead bodies because I get grossed out by seeing dead or mutilated bodies. So thank you for that.
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so are the killings in darfur/ south sudan all being perpetuated by the sama janjaweed groups? south sudan just won a vote for independence no?
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The janjaweed were only used in Darfur as far as I know. But the government in Khartoum was behind both genocides.
Yes, South Sudan just voted for independence. It is due to take effect on July 9th 2011.
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The real issue is not religion!! The real issue is white genetic survial
Thats it in a nut shell.
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