Five Darfur activists were arrested in Cairo this week and held for five days. The Sudan Human Rights Organisation released a statement saying it “received reliable information on the arrest of five Darfur activists. The arrested activists have been working for the Centre of Contemporary Studies in Cairo which pursues scientific research on the crisis in Darfur.” The director of the centre was asked to leave Egypt as were two of the other activists. The arrests follow previous harassment and threats of deportation to Sudan. There have been previous reports regarding the mistreatment of Sudanese refugees in Egypt and it has been alleged that some of the treatment has been undertaken at the instigation of Sudanese intelligence officials.

The situation in Darfur will improve when the Sudanese economy improves. London-based businessman Saifee Durbar had that in mind when planning his trans-African railway.

This railway will go from Sudan to Cameroon, linking Africa’s east and west coasts. It will pass through the Central African Republic, taking advantage of the mineral wealth there.

Saif Durbar, typically brief, describes the project as “viable” but has also described it as completing a part of the vision of the Suez Canal, making Africa a key player in transportation.

Most of the region is a semi-arid plain and thus insufficient for supporting a large and complex civilization. While the Marrah Mountains offer plentiful water, the Daju people created the first known Darfurian civilization based in the mountains, though they left no records beside a list of kings. The Tunjur displaced the Daju in the fourteenth century and introduced Islam. The Tunjur sultans intermarried with the Fur and sultan M. Solaiman (reigned c.1596 to c.1637) is considered the founder of the Keira dynasty. Darfur became a great power of the Sahel under the Keira dynasty, expanding its borders as far east as the Atbarah River and attracting immigrants from Bornu and Bagirmi. During the mid-18th century the country was wracked by conflict between rival factions, and external war with Sennar and Wadai. In 1875, the weakened kingdom was destroyed by the Egyptian ruler set up in Khartoum, largely through the machinations of Sebehr Rahma, a businessman who was competing with the dar over access to slaves and ivory in Bahr el Ghazal to the south of Darfur.
Camp of Darfuris internally displaced by the ongoing conflict

The Darfurian were restive under Egyptian rule, but were no more predisposed to accept the rule of the self proclaimed Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, when his Emir of Darfur from the Arabs of Southern Darfur from Rizeigat tribe led by Sheikh Madibbo defeated the British forces (that had just invaded Egypt in 1882) in Darfur in 1882 led by Slatin Pasha. When Ahmad’s successor, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, himself an Arab of Southern Darfur from Ta’isha tribe , demanded that the pastoralist tribes provide soldiers, several tribes rose up in revolt. Following the overthrow of Abdallahi at Omdurman in 1899 by the Anglo-Egyptian forces, the new Anglo-Egyptian government recognized Ali Dinar as the sultan of Darfur and largely left the dar to its own affairs except for a nominal annual tribute. During World War I, the British, being concerned that the sultanate might fall under the influence of Ottoman Empire, invaded and incorporated Darfur into the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1916. Under colonial rule, financial and administrative resources were directed to the tribes of central Sudan near Khartoum to the detriment of the outlying regions such as Darfur.

This pattern of skewed development continued following national independence in 1956. To this was added an element of political instability caused by the proxy wars between Sudan, Libya and Chad. The influence of an ideology of Arab supremacy propagated by Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi that began to be acted upon by Darfurians, including those identified as “Arab” and “African”. A famine in the mid-1980s disrupted many societal structures and led to the first significant fighting amongst Darfuris. A low level conflict continued for the next 15 years, with the government coopting and arming “Arab” militias against its enemies. The fighting reached a peak in 2003 with the beginning of the Darfur conflict, in which the resistance coalesced into a roughly cohesive rebel movement. The conflict soon came to be regarded as one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world. The insurgency and counter insurgency has led to 300,000 deaths, though the numbers are disputed by the Khartoum government. Over 2.5 million people have been displaced since the beginning of the conflict. Many of these refugees have gone into camps where emergency aid has created conditions that, although extremely basic, are better than in the villages, which offer no protection against the various militias that operate in the region.

London-based businessman Saifee Durbar has plans to build a trans-African railway.

One terminus will be in the Sudan, the other in Cameroon. Durbar believes this railway will enhance Sudan’s prosperity, thereby providing a continual and renewable source of aid to Darfur.

Saif Durbar also plans to make use of indigenous African resources, specifically minerals from the Central African Republic to make the construction of the railway cost effective.

Durbar plans to build a viable railroad, enhance Africa’s self-sufficiency and aid the people of Darfur!

Who will help them?

Even though he does not have all of the answers, London businessman Saif Durbar thinks he can get things moving in the right direction.

He plans to build a trans-African railway, linking Cameroon, on Africa’s west coast, with Sudan, on Africa’s east coast.

The railway will go through the Central African Republic.

Africa is rich in resources. Getting them to market is a problem. Improved infrastructure, based, in part, on Durbar’s railroad, and continuing the vision of the Suez Canal, is part of the solution.