Darfur
Where should we start to look for the historical roots of this latest of Sudan's wars? Between 1881and 1885 Sudan was ruled by a boat-builder from Aba Island in Darfur. Proclaimed as the Mahdi, he was a legendry Islamic scholar and brilliant military tactician who united the constantly warring tribes of Sudan and crushed the Egyptian and British forces sent against him. His ansar, a rag-tag army armed with swords and spears, was always victorious during his 4 year reign, and united Sudan under Sharia law until al-Mahdi's death from typhus . Tribes in the Mahdi's Kordofan region of Sudan are some of the principals in the complex mix of traditional tribal warfare, a national struggle for the leadership of the country, desertification, the long war with Chad, Islamic fundamentalist extremism, and the usual ignorant and hypocritical remarks from the USA. Some of the Mahdi's zeal for fundamentalist Islamic rule, in the style of Al Qaida, drives the JEM, one of the rebel groups......
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Approximate Pages: 12 (260 words per double-spaced page) |