Darfur
Darfur (Arabic: دار فور dār fūr, lit. "realm of the Fur") is a region in Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur which are coordinated by a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority. Because of the War in Darfur, the region has been in a state of humanitarian emergency since 2003.
Geography
Darfur covers an area of some 493,180 square kilometers (190,420 sq mi)[1]—approximately the size of France.[2][3][4] It is largely an arid plateau with the Marrah Mountains (Jebel Marra), a range of volcanic peaks rising up to 3,042 meters (9,980 ft) of topographic prominence,[5] in the center of the region. The region's main towns are Al Fashir, Nyala, and Geneina.
There are four main features of the physical geography. The whole eastern half of Darfur is covered with plains and low hills of sandy soils, known as goz, and sandstone hills. In many places the goz is waterless and can only be inhabited where there are water reservoirs or deep boreholes. While dry, goz may also support rich pasture and arable land. To the north the goz is overtaken by the desert sands of the Sahara. A second feature are the wadis, which range from seasonal watercourses that flood only occasionally during the wet season to large wadis that flood for most of the rains and flow from western Darfur hundreds of miles west to Lake Chad. Many wadis have pans of alluvium with rich soil that are also difficult to cultivate. Western Darfur is dominated by the third feature, basement rock, sometimes covered with a thin layer of sandy soil. Basement rock is too infertile to be farmed, but provides sporadic forest cover that can be grazed by animals. The fourth and final feature are the Marrah Mountains, volcanic plugs created by a massif, that rise up to a peak at Deriba crater where there is a small area of temperate climate, high rainfall and permanent springs of water.
Remote sensing has detected the imprint of a vast underground lake under Darfur. The potential water deposits are estimated at 19,110 square miles (49,500 km2). The lake, during epochs when the region was more humid, would have contained about 607 cubic miles of water.[6] It may have dried up thousands of years ago.[7]
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Government
The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur. The Darfur Agreement established a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority (TDRA) as an interim authority for the region.[8] The agreement states that a referendum on autonomy for Darfur should be held no later than 2011.[8] Minni Minnawi is the current Chairperson of the TDRA.
See also
- War in Darfur
- Aegis Students, an international student-based genocide prevention movement, focused on Darfur.
- Aegis Trust
Notes and references
Information on the crisis in Darfur
- ^ Sudan's Geography, GlobalDreamers.org
- ^ Darfur : A complex ethnic reality with a long history - International Herald Tribune
- ^ Congressional Reps Give Update on Troubled Darfur Region of Sudan - PBS News, 2005-02-17
- ^ Quick guide: Darfur - BBC News, 2006-09-06
- ^ Africa Ultra-Prominences, PeakList.org
- ^ "Underground lake may bring Darfur peace: scientist" by Tanzina Vega, Reuters, July 18, 2007
- ^ Ancient Darfur lake 'is dried up', BBC, July 20, 2007
- ^ a b Sudan Tribune
External links
- Eyes on Darfur (by Amnesty International)