The War in Darfur is a military conflict in the Darfur region of
western Sudan. Unlike the Second Sudanese Civil War, the current
lines of conflict are seen to be ethnic and tribal, rather than
religious. One side of the armed conflict is composed mainly of
the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed, a militia group
recruited mostly from the Arab Abbala tribes of the northern
Rizeigat, camel-herding nomads. The other side comprises a
variety of rebel groups, notably the Sudan Liberation Movement
and the Justice and Equality Movement, recruited primarily from
the land-tilling non-Arab Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic
groups. The Sudanese government, while publicly denying that it
supports the Janjaweed, has provided money and assistance to the
militia and has participated in joint attacks targeting the
tribes from which the rebels draw support. The conflict began in
February 2003. The combination of decades of drought,
desertification, and overpopulation are among the causes of the
Darfur conflict, because the