The Causes of the Darfur War. An Analysis Based on Barbara Harff’s Model

Abstract

This paper examines the counterinsurgency campaign carried by the Sudanese government and the Janjawid militias during the Darfur war. The first part considers whether that campaign constituted genocide according to the definition and four guidelines set forth by Barbara Harff to identify genocide. The second section explains the Darfur genocide based both on a historical review and analysis of the six preconditions or factors identified by Harff, namely, political upheaval, previous genocides, the ideological orientation of the ruling elite, the type of regime, the ethnic character of the ruling elite, and openness to foreign trade. This research aims at establishing whether the nature of the policies of the Sudanese government and the Janjawid militias were genocide or politycide -mass murder of political groups- to identify and explain accordingly its causes.