Country: Sudan

Group: Dinka

Date Finalized: 04/15/21

Team: Ann Thomas (Lead), Abi Pentecost, Arisha Khan, Samantha Bradford

There is ample evidence to show that at multiple points in the recent past, the Sudanese government and other Sudanese tribes forced the Dinka people away from their homes.

Historically, neighboring Arab groups have vandalized their property and homes, forcing the Dinka to move (Minority Rights Group, 2020). In the early 1980s, the discovery of oil fields in the southern regions of Sudan resulted in many violent struggles for the land. This tension resulted in the first large scale migration of Dinka people away from their land starting in 1983 and continuing intermittently until 1988 (Minority Rights Group, 2020). Furthermore, in 1991, the Sudanese civil war and ethnic tension between the Dinka and Nuer people culminated in the Bor Massacre. During this time, Nuer fighters killed thousands of Dinka people, destroyed their cattle destroyed, and burned their homes. The surviving Dinka in the town of Bor lost their homes and subsequently fled (Beswick, 2004). As of April 2014, there is evidence of further brutal violence against the Dinka that required them to flee their homes. Roughly 100,000 people were still displaced and forced to flee to neighboring countries or to seek refugee status in countries such as the United States and Australia (Wheeler, 2014). At the peak of this violence, 19,000 Dinka sought refuge at a United Nations base in the surrounding area (Wheeler, 2014)

The quality of data is rated at a 3 because there is an ample amount of credible, peer-reviewed resources.

Sources

  1. Beswick, S. (2004). Sudan’s blood memory: The legacy of war, ethnicity, and slavery in early South Sudan. University of Rochester Press.
  2. Minority Rights Group. (2020). Dinka. Minority Rights Group. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/dinka/
  3. Wheeler, S. (2014, August 7). South Sudan’s New War. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/08/07/south-sudans-new-war/abuses-government-and-opposition-forces