Country: Sudan

Group: Beja

Date Finalized: 4/14/21

Team: Natasha Chandra (lead), Colleen Clauss, Omer Carrillo, Therin Carr

The Beja in Sudan continue to suffer from forced displacement. The data quality is a 3 because there are detailed accounts of the Beja being forced away.

The Beja are a nomad tribe residing in eastern Sudan near the Red Sea. They are a largerly Muslim group whose territory covers 110,000 square miles. During a 17-year civil war between the National Islamic Front government of Sudan and the National Democratic Alliance (Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, 1999), the Beja experienced mass displacement, landmines, harassment, and indiscriminate shelling by the current government of Sudan (CIRBC, 1999). In the mid-twentieth century, increasing urbanization and hostile weather and drought cost many Beja their economic stability and livelihoods (CIRBC, 1999). They formed separate political bodies, such as the 1965 Beja Congress, as a united front against their exclusion from the Sudanese government (Minority Rights Group, 2018). After the construction of the Aswan Dam from 1964-1967, many Beja began to suffer from impoverishment (Minority Rights Group, 2018).  Many Beja live in shantytowns outside urban centers after severe droughts in the 1980s killed their cattle and made them lose their traditional livelihoods (Minority Rights Group, 2018). The Sudanese government sold some of the Beja’s most fertile pastureland (along the Gash River) to government loyalists, in the early 1990s (CIRBC, 1999). In 1996, the Beja suffered reprisals from the Khartoum government when they refused after being forced to serve in the Sudan army (Jenkins, 2016). Due to this, many members of the Beja tribe have taken refuge in Eritrea (CIRBC, 1999). Currently, the Beja live in an environmentally hostile area, are neglected and marginalized by Sudanese government, and experience problems of poverty and extreme destitution (CIRBC, 1999).

Sources

  1. Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. (1999 June 1). Sudan: The  Beja [Baja] tribe of Sudan. Retrieved 5 April 2021.  https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6aca050.html.
  2. Jenkins, O. (2016 November 9). The Beja People of Sudan, Eritrea and Egypt. Retrieved 5 April 2021. http://orvillejenkins.com/profiles/beja.html.
  3. Minority Rights Group. (2018 June). Beja. Retrieved 5 April 2021. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/beja/.