Darfur

See also: Darfur Conflict

Darfur, in the west of Sudan, is a remote area, whose name means "Land of the Fur", the Fur being one of its pastoralist resident groups. It has three provinces and main towns:

• El Fasher in North Darfur Province, the site of the main airport in the region
• El Junaynah in West Darfur Province
• Nyala in South Darfur Province, and on the insecure railroad, in the central part and considered the regional capital

Chad forms most of the western border, with a small stretch with the Central African Republic and a very small one with Libya. The Bahr Al Ghazal provinces to the south are part of semiautonomous South Sudan, while the north and east borders are with the Khartoum government.

Ethnic groups

There are three major pastoral groups, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

• Fur (ethnic group)
• Masalit
• Zaghawa

The Baggara, predominantly Arab although having some Fur intermarriage, are nomadic.

Economy

Historically, the economy has been agricultural, at a subsistence level.

Oil concessions have been defined in the Kordofan provinces, and it is likely that oil exists somewhere in Darfur. There are working oilfields in south Chad.

There is virtually no transportation infrastructure. One of the problems of flying in humanitarian supplies is that while the El Fasher airport does have reasonable navigational aids, aviation fuel either has to be flown in, or brought over extremely insecure roads. The Nyala-El Fasher road is gravel, which can be described only as an improvement over dirt.