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141-491: In the 1980s and 1990s, the Muraheleen played a crucial role in the government's counter-insurgency strategy, benefiting from state support in the form of weapons, ammunition, and logistical assistance. Their actions were characterised by severe human rights abuses, including using scorched earth tactics, mass murder and ethnic cleansing . Their role diminished after the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement , which aimed to end

282-495: A brigadier general in the Sudanese Army , he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south; he subsequently replaced President Ahmed al-Mirghani as head of state. He was elected three times as president in elections that have been under scrutiny for electoral fraud . In 1992, al-Bashir founded

423-496: A base of support among the (Ngok and Titweng) Dinka of southern Sudan. After the 1985 Sudanese coup d'état and the deposition of Nimeiry, Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi 's government employed the Muraheleen and its military successors for almost twenty years as a counterinsurgency force against the southern-based rebels, the SPLM/A. The Muraheleen militias often destroyed Christian villages, killed all their adult males and then took

564-611: A bill to reduce the president's powers, prompting al-Bashir to dissolve parliament and declare a state of emergency , tensions began to rise between al-Bashir and al-Turabi. Reportedly, al-Turabi was suspended as chairman of National Congress Party, after he urged a boycott of the president's re-election campaign. Then, a splinter-faction led by al-Turabi, the Popular National Congress Party (PNC) signed an agreement with Sudan People's Liberation Army , which led al-Bashir to believe that they were plotting to overthrow him and

705-708: A boiling point when the Sudanese military bombed territory in South Sudan, leading to hostilities over the disputed Heglig (or Panthou) oil fields located along the Sudan-South Sudan border. Omar al-Bashir sought the assistance of numerous non-western countries after the West, led by America, imposed sanctions against him, he said: "From the first day, our policy was clear: To look eastward, toward China , Malaysia , India , Pakistan , Indonesia , and even Korea and Japan , even if

846-599: A campaign in the Hejaz and Yemen to ravage territory loyal to Muawiyah's opponent Ali ibn Abi Talib . According to Tabari , 30,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed during that campaign of the civil war. Muawiyah also sent Sufyan ibn Awf to Iraq to burn the crops and homes of Ali's supporters. During the Viking invasion of England , the Viking chieftain Hastein tried to occupy

987-528: A complicated and frequently antagonistic relationship for many years. President al-Bashir said the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfuri rebel group, had attacked Khartoum three years ago using Libyan trucks, equipment, arms, ammunition and money. He said God had given Sudan a chance to respond, by sending arms, ammunition and humanitarian support to the Libyan revolutionaries. "Our God, high and exalted, from above

1128-631: A court decided whether he should be handed over to the ICC for war crimes. He, nevertheless, was allowed to leave South Africa soon afterward. Luis Moreno Ocampo and Amnesty International claimed that al-Bashir's plane could be intercepted in International Airspace. Sudan announced that the presidential plane would always be escorted by fighter jets of the Sudanese Air Force to prevent his arrest. In March 2009, just before al-Bashir's visit to Qatar,

1269-656: A decade amassing intelligence data on bin Laden and a wide array of Islamists through their periodic annual visits for the PAIC conferences. In May 1996, after the series of Erwa secret meetings on US soil, the Clinton Administration demanded that Sudan expel Bin Laden. Bashir complied. Controversy erupted about whether Sudan had offered to extradite bin Laden in return for rescinding American sanctions that were interfering with Sudan's plans to develop oil fields in southern areas of

1410-474: A helicopter crash. Al-Bashir does not have any children of his own. In 1975, al-Bashir was sent to the United Arab Emirates as the Sudanese military attaché . When he returned home, al-Bashir was made a garrison commander. In 1981, al-Bashir returned to his paratroop background when he became the commander of an armored parachute brigade. The Sudanese Ministry of Defense website says that al-Bashir

1551-826: A king. During the Wars of Scottish Independence , Robert the Bruce adopted a strategy of slighting Scottish castles to prevent them from being occupied by the invading English. A strategy of slighting castles in Palestine was also adopted by the Mamlukes during their wars with the Crusaders . Stephen the Great used scorched earth in the Carpathians against the Ottoman Army in 1475 and 1476. In 1462,

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1692-623: A local level. But real war as such, I think we are over that," he said. This perspective is contradicted by reports which indicate that violence continues in Darfur while peace efforts have been stalled repeatedly. Violence between Sudan's military and rebel fighters has beset South Kordofan and Blue Nile states since disputed state elections in May 2011, an ongoing humanitarian crisis that has prompted international condemnation and U.S. congressional hearings. In 2012, tensions between Sudan and South Sudan reached

1833-624: A massive Ottoman army, led by Sultan Mehmed II , marched into Wallachia. Vlad the Impaler retreated to Transylvania . During his departure, he conducted scorched-earth tactics to ward off Mehmed's approach. When the Ottoman forces approached Tirgoviste , they encountered over 20,000 people impaled by the forces of Vlad the Impaler, creating a "forest" of dead or dying bodies on stakes. The atrocious, gut-wrenching sight caused Mehmed to withdraw from battle and send instead Radu, Vlad's brother, to fight Vlad

1974-753: A plan to destroy the three main ethnic groups— Fur , Masalit , and Zaghawa —with a campaign of murder, rape, and deportation . The arrest warrant is supported by NATO , the Genocide Intervention Network , and Amnesty International . An arrest warrant for al-Bashir was issued on 4 March 2009 by a pre-trial chamber composed of judges Akua Kuenyehia of Ghana , Anita Usacka of Latvia , and Sylvia Steiner of Brazil indicting him on five counts of crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape) and two counts of war crimes ( pillaging and intentionally directing attacks against civilians). The court ruled that there

2115-428: A referendum on independence . It created a co-vice president position and allowed the north and south to split oil deposits equally, but also left both the north's and south's armies in place. John Garang , the south's peace agreement appointed co-vice president, died in a helicopter crash on 1 August 2005, three weeks after being sworn in. This resulted in riots, but the peace was eventually re-established and allowed

2256-506: A scorched earth campaign that threatened the population with starvation and deported many civilians into slavery in Egypt . The fires of burning villages and fields were clearly visible from Allied ships standing offshore. A British landing party reported that the population of Messinia was close to mass starvation. Ibrahim's scorched-earth policy caused much outrage in Europe , which was one factor for

2397-558: A scorched-earth policy and so the Spaniards advanced into a wasteland. Belgrano's army destroyed everything that could provide shelter or be useful to the Royalists. In 1827, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt led an Ottoman-Egyptian combined force in a campaign to crush Greek revolutionaries in the Peloponnese . In response to Greek guerrilla attacks on his forces in the Peloponnese , Ibrahim launched

2538-759: A scorched-earth policy in the Palatinate , Baden and Württemberg . The French were intent on denying enemy troops local resources and on preventing the Germans from invading France. By 20 December 1688, Louvois had selected all the cities, towns, villages and châteaux intended for destruction. On 2 March 1689, the Count of Tessé torched Heidelberg , and on 8 March, Montclar levelled Mannheim . Oppenheim and Worms were finally destroyed on 31 May, followed by Speyer on 1 June, and Bingen on 4 June. In all, French troops burnt over 20 substantial towns as well as numerous villages. In

2679-676: A state visit in July 2010. He was also invited to attend conferences in Denmark and Turkey . On 28 November 2011, following a visit to Kenya , Kenya's High Court Judge Nicholas Ombija ordered the Minister of Internal Security to arrest al-Bashir, "should he set foot in Kenya in the future". In June 2015, while in South Africa for an African Union meeting, al-Bashir was prohibited from leaving that country while

2820-601: A suitably-rugged container had not yet been invented.) The command was obeyed as a result of French plundering and general ill-treatment of civilians in the previous invasions. The civilians would rather destroy anything that had to be left behind, rather than leave it to the French. When the French armies reached the Lines of Torres Vedras on the way to Lisbon, French soldiers reported that the country "seemed to empty ahead of them". Low morale, hunger, disease and indiscipline greatly weakened

2961-491: Is "suspected of being criminally responsible, as an indirect co-perpetrator". The court's decision was opposed by the African Union , Arab League and Non-Aligned Movement as well as the governments of Libya, Somalia , Jordan , Turkey , Egypt , South Sudan, Djibouti , Eritrea , Pakistan , Algeria , Iraq , Saudi Arabia , Kuwait , Oman , Palestine , Ethiopia , Tunisia , Morocco , Lebanon , Bahrain , Qatar and

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3102-483: Is a military strategy of destroying everything that allows an enemy military force to be able to fight a war, including the deprivation and destruction of water, food, humans, animals, plants and any kind of tools and infrastructure . Its use is possible by a retreating army to leave nothing of value worth taking, to weaken the attacking force or by an advancing army to fight against unconventional warfare . Scorched earth against non-combatants has been banned under

3243-456: Is necessary to pursue a great aim: the destruction of the enemy army, either by battle or by rendering its subsistence extremely difficult. Thus we shall disorganize it and force it into a retreat, during which it will necessarily suffer great losses. Wellington's campaign in 1810 and 1811 is a good example. Clausewitz wrote in On War : All that the country yields will be taken for the benefit of

3384-524: Is now Jujuy and Salta Provinces to the south. The Jujuy Exodus was conducted by the patriot forces of the Army of the North , which was battling a Royalist army. Belgrano, faced with the prospect of total defeat and territorial loss, ordered all people to pack their necessities, including food and furniture, and to follow him in carriages or on foot together with whatever cattle and beasts of burden that could endure

3525-480: Is the counsel and intent Of gud King Robert's testiment. A slighting is the deliberate destruction, whether partial or complete, of a fortification without opposition. Sometimes, such as during the Wars of Scottish Independence and the English Civil War , it was done to render the structure unusable as a fortress. In England, adulterine (unauthorised) castles would usually be slighted if captured by

3666-419: The 1977 Geneva Conventions . It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to

3807-589: The Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum was destroyed by a U.S. cruise missile strike because of its alleged production of chemical weapons and links to al-Qaeda . However the U.S. State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research wrote a report in 1999 questioning the attack on the factory, suggesting that the connection to bin Laden was not accurate; James Risen reported in The New York Times : "Now,

3948-558: The Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (which holds indirect political power during the 39-month Sudanese transition to democracy ), Hamdok, and Sovereignty Council member Siddiq Tawer stated that Bashir would be eventually transferred to the ICC. He was convicted of corruption in December of that year and sentenced to two years in prison. His trial regarding his role in the coup that brought him into power started on 21 July 2020. Al-Bashir

4089-668: The Great Powers ( United Kingdom , the Kingdom of France and the Russian Empire ) decisively intervening against him in the Battle of Navarino . In the American Civil War , Union forces under Philip Sheridan and William Tecumseh Sherman used the policy widely: supplies within the reach of Confederate armies I regarded as much contraband as arms or ordnance stores. Their destruction

4230-549: The Humber to Tees and slaughtered the inhabitants. Food stores and livestock were destroyed so that anyone surviving the initial massacre would soon succumb to starvation over the winter. The destruction is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry . The survivors were reduced to cannibalism , with one report stating that the skulls of the dead were cracked open so that their brains could be eaten. Between 100,000 and 150,000 perished, and

4371-713: The ICC for trial. In October 2005, al-Bashir's government negotiated an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War , leading to a referendum in the south, resulting in the separation of the south as the country of South Sudan . In the Darfur region, he oversaw the War in Darfur that resulted in death tolls of around 10,000 according to the Sudanese Government, but most sources suggest between 200,000 and 400,000. During his presidency, there were several violent struggles between

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4512-581: The Iroquois decisively during the American Revolutionary War with the Sullivan Expedition . General John Sullivan used a scorched earth campaign by destroying more than 40 Iroquois villages and their stores of winter crops resulting in many deaths by starvation and cold in the following winter. In a letter to Jean-Jacques Dessalines , Toussaint Louverture outlined his plans for defeating

4653-568: The Janjaweed militia and rebel groups such as the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in the form of guerrilla warfare in the Darfur region. The civil war displaced over 2.5 million people out of a total population of 6.2 million in Darfur and created a crisis in the diplomatic relations between Sudan and Chad . The rebels in Darfur lost

4794-853: The Janjaweed militia: the Sudanese government claim that up to 10,000 have been killed in this conflict; the United Nations reported that about 300,000 had died as of 2010, and other reports place the figures at between 200,000 and 400,000. During an interview with David Frost for the Al Jazeera English programme Frost Over The World in June 2008, al-Bashir insisted that no more than 10,000 had died in Darfur. The Sudanese government had been accused of suppressing information by jailing and killing witnesses since 2004, and tampering with evidence, such as covering up mass graves . The Sudanese government has also arrested and harassed journalists, thus limiting

4935-475: The Maratha Empire , Shivaji Maharaj had introduced scorched-earth tactics, known as Ganimi Kava . His forces looted traders and businessmen from Aurangzeb 's Mughal Empire and burnt down his cities, but they were strictly ordered not to rape or hurt the innocent civilians and not to cause any sort of disrespect to any of the religious institutes. Shivaji's son, Sambhaji Maharaj , was detested throughout

5076-666: The National Congress Party , which remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019. In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur . On 11 February 2020, the Government of Sudan announced that it had agreed to hand over al-Bashir to

5217-621: The Popular Defence Forces Act of 1989 . But the Human Rights Watch documented atrocities committed by the militia beyond this date. In October 1996, it was reported that the militia raided Ruweng , southern Sudan. In 2001, The New Humanitarian reported a raid by the Muraheleen in Marial Bai were 122 women and children were abducted and 5,075 cattle were stolen. On 21 January 2001, the militia raided Aweil East County . In 2002,

5358-716: The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and then in the Indian Wars of the Great Plains . When General Ulysses Grant 's forces broke through the defenses of Richmond, Virginia , Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered the destruction of Richmond's military supplies. The resulting fires quickly spread to other buildings, as well as to the Confederate warships docked on the James River . Civilians in panic were forced to escape

5499-475: The Sudanese Workers' Trade Union Federation (SWTUF). They threatened to hold nationwide strikes in support of higher wages. The continued deterioration in the value of the Sudanese pound (SDG) posed grave downside risks to already soaring inflation. This, coupled with the economic slowdown, presents serious challenges to the implementation of the approved Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP). In

5640-507: The United Arab Emirates . From December 2018 onwards, al-Bashir faced large-scale protests which demanded his removal from power. On 11 April 2019, Bashir was ousted in a military coup d'état. In September 2019, Bashir was replaced by the Transitionary Military Council which transferred executive power to a mixed civilian–military Sovereignty Council and a civilian prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok . Two months later,

5781-747: The United Nations . It was unclear to date if al-Bashir would have been allowed to travel, due to previous sanctions. When al-Bashir took power the Second Sudanese Civil War had been ongoing for nine years. The war soon effectively developed into a conflict between the Sudan People's Liberation Army and al-Bashir's government. The war resulted in millions of southerners being displaced, starved, and deprived of education and health care, with almost two million casualties. Because of these actions, various international sanctions were placed on Sudan. International pressure intensified in 2001, however, and leaders from

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5922-576: The United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). It was intended to have supplanted or supplemented a 7,000-troop African Union Mission in Sudan peacekeeping force . Sudan strongly objected to the resolution and said that it would see the UN forces in the region as "foreign invaders". A day after rejecting the UN forces into Sudan, the Sudanese military launched a major offensive in

6063-573: The 1988 famine, in which an estimated 250,000 died, the Muraheleen – since 1986 – were sanctioned by the government to carry out looting, raiding, displacement, killing, and abduction of the Dinka people, leading to a significant transfer of Dinka cattle wealth to the Baggara, and the forced displacement of almost 100,000 to 200,000 civilians. The 1998 famine in Bahr El Ghazal, which affected 2.6 million people,

6204-413: The Administration was saying, the case tying Al Shifa to Mr. bin Laden or to chemical weapons was weak." After being re-elected president of Sudan with a five-year-term in the 1996 election with 75.7% of the popular vote, al-Bashir issued the registration of legalized political parties in 1999 after being influenced by al-Turabi. Rival parties such as the Liberal Democrats of Sudan and the Alliance of

6345-420: The African Union Commission, which were addressed to al-Bashir. The technical consultations were attended by delegations from the Government of Sudan, the African Union , and the United Nations. In 2009, General Martin Luther Agwai , head of the UNAMID, said the war was over in the region, although low-level disputes remained. "Banditry, localised issues, people trying to resolve issues over water and land at

6486-460: The Bashir regime to remove the sanctions. Erwa was presented with a series of demands from the United States, including demands for information about Osama bin Laden and other radical Islamic groups. The US demand list also encouraged Bashir's regime to move away from activities, such as hosting the Popular Arab and Islamic Congress, that impinged on Sudanese efforts to reconcile with the West. Sudan's Mukhabarat (central intelligence agency) spent half

6627-431: The Darfuri rebels it had previously supported. Both Sudanese and Chadian sides together established a joint military border patrol. On 26 October 2011, al-Bashir said that Sudan gave military support to the Libyan rebels , who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi . In a speech broadcast live on state television, al-Bashir said the move was in response to Gaddafi's support for Sudanese rebels three years ago. Sudan and Libya have had

6768-449: The Dinka and Baggara adhered to border agreements and legal principles. Post- independence , the northern Sudanese authorities went back on their pledge to maintain the colonial boundaries between Bahr el Ghazal, Darfur, and Kordofan. They proposed merging the distinct grazing and fishing territories of the Mulual Dinka and the Baggara to hasten the unification of the two ethnic communities. This planned integration reignited tensions between

6909-405: The Dinka and Baggara herders. The concept of jihad was reintroduced to the country in 1983 when President Gaafar Nimeiry declared the September 1983 Laws . The Muraheleen, state-backed Baggara armed factions, surfaced along the Malual Dinka-Baqqara frontier and were later converted into government militia forces in southern Darfur and southern Kordofan for jihad and conquest. This resulted in

7050-400: The Duke of Pomerania, the imperial general permitted his troops, upon his retreat, to exercise every barbarity on the unfortunate inhabitants of Pomerania, who had already suffered but too severely from his avarice. On pretence of cutting off the resources of the Swedes, the whole country was laid waste and plundered; and often, when the Imperialists were unable any longer to maintain a place, it

7191-532: The Fairfax hotel meetings. In a joint opinion piece in the Washington Post Outlook Section in 2003, Carney and Ijaz argued that in fact the Sudanese had offered to extradite bin Laden to a third country in exchange for sanctions relief. In August 1996, American hedge-fund manager Mansoor Ijaz traveled to Sudan and met with senior officials including al-Turabi and al-Bashir. Ijaz asked Sudanese officials to share intelligence data with US officials on bin Laden and other Islamists who had traveled to and from Sudan during

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7332-481: The French army and compelled the forces to retreat, see also Attrition warfare against Napoleon . In 1812, Emperor Alexander I was able to render Napoleon's invasion of Russia useless by using a scorched-earth policy. As Russians withdrew from the advancing French army, they burned the countryside over which they passed ( and allegedly Moscow ), leaving nothing of value for the pursuing French army. Encountering only desolate and useless land Napoleon's Grande Armée

7473-521: The French in the Haitian Revolution starting in 1791 using scorched-earth: "Do not forget, while waiting for the rainy reason which will rid us of our foes, that we have no other resource than destruction and fire. Bear in mind that the soil bathed with our sweat must not furnish our enemies with the smallest sustenance. Tear up the roads with shot; throw corpses and horses into all the foundations, burn and annihilate everything in order that those who have come to reduce us to slavery may have before their eyes

7614-413: The Gallic alliance showed that the ravaging alone was not to be enough to save Gaul from subjugation by Rome. In the year CE 363, the Emperor Julian 's invasion of Persia was turned back by a scorched-earth policy: The extensive region that lies between the River Tigris and the mountains of Media ...was in a very improved state of cultivation. Julian might expect, that a conqueror, who possessed

7755-430: The ICC charges. Al-Bashir has rejected the charges, saying "Whoever has visited Darfur, met officials and discovered their ethnicities and tribes ... will know that all of these things are lies." He described the charges as "not worth the ink they are written in". The warrant was to be delivered to the Sudanese government, which stated that they would not carry it out. The Sudanese government retaliated against

7896-400: The ICC, which gives the court jurisdiction over international crimes committed in Sudan and obligates Government of Sudan to cooperate with the ICC, and therefore the court, Amnesty International and others insist that Sudan must comply with the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court. Amnesty International stated that al-Bashir must turn himself in to face the charges, and that

8037-415: The Impaler. Further use of scorched-earth policies in war was seen during the 16th century in Ireland , where it was used by English commanders such as Walter Devereux and Richard Bingham . The Desmond Rebellions were a famous case in Ireland. Much of the province of Munster was laid waste. The poet Edmund Spenser left an account of it: In those late wars in Munster ; for not withstanding that

8178-429: The Jackal , Osama bin Laden , Abu Nidal and others labeled "terrorist leaders" by the United States and its allies resided in Khartoum. Sudan's role in the Popular Arab and Islamic Congress (PAIC), spearheaded by Hassan al-Turabi , represented a matter of great concern to the security of American officials and dependents in Khartoum, resulting in several reductions and evacuations of American personnel from Khartoum in

8319-428: The Knights, the Maltese militia and a Spanish relief force. In 1630, Field-Marshal General Torquato Conti was in command of the Holy Roman Empire 's forces during the Thirty Years' War . Forced to retreat from the advancing Swedish army of King Gustavus Adolphus , Conti ordered his troops to burn houses, destroy villages and cause as much harm generally to property and people as possible.: To revenge himself upon

8460-435: The Mughal Empire for his scorched-earth tactics until he and his men were captured by Muqarrab Khan and his Mughal Army contingent of 25,000. On 11 March 1689, a panel of Mughal qadis indicted and sentenced Sambhaji to death on accusations of casual torture , arson , looting and massacres but most prominently for giving shelter to Sultan Muhammad Akbar, the fourth son of Aurangzeb, who had sought Sambhaji's aid in winning

8601-416: The Mughal throne from the emperor, his father. Sambhaji was particularly condemned for the three days of ravaging committed after the Battle of Burhanpur. During the Great Northern War , Russian Emperor Peter the Great 's forces used scorched-earth tactics to hold back Swedish King Charles XII 's campaign towards Moscow in 1707–1708. In 1779 Congress decided to defeat the four British allied nations of

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8742-478: The Muraheleen has been to escort the military supply train to Wau . They load their horses onto the train, which are then unloaded upon arrival in Bahr el Ghazal to be used in conflicts against Dinka villages. Following the 1989 Sudanese coup d'état , Omar al-Bashir 's government incorporated the Muraheleen into official government militias controlled by the army and continued to receive government support to attack Dinka and Nuer civilians, whose men had joined

8883-602: The Muraheleen, who raid civilians—primarily of the Dinka ethnic group from the southern region of Bahr El Ghazal . The Muraheleen captured children and women who were taken to western Sudan and elsewhere as ghanimah to be slaves and concubines . They were "forced to work for free in homes and fields, punished when they refuse, and abused physically and sometimes sexually". Dinka girls kept in northern Sudanese households were used as sex slaves . Some of them were sold in Libya . Western visitors noted that at slave markets, five or even more slaves could be bought for one rifle. Near

9024-449: The Muslim world. Former president of the African Union Muammar al-Gaddafi characterized the indictment as a form of terrorism. He also believed that the warrant is an attempt "by (the west) to recolonize their former colonies". Egypt said, it was "greatly disturbed" by the ICC decision and called for an emergency meeting of the UN security council to defer the arrest warrant. The Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa expressed that

9165-526: The Peoples' Working Forces, headed by former Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry , were established and were allowed to run for election against al-Bashir's National Congress Party , however, they failed to achieve significant support, and al-Bashir was re-elected president, receiving 86.5% of the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election . At the legislative elections that same year, al-Bashir's National Congress Party won 355 out of 360 seats, with al-Turabi as its chairman. However, after al-Turabi introduced

9306-443: The Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene , Quintus Fabius Maximus instructed those living in the path of the invading Carthaginians to burn their houses and grain. After the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BCE, the Roman Senate also elected to use this method to permanently destroy the Carthaginian capital city, Carthage (near modern-day Tunis ). The buildings were torn down, their stones scattered so not even rubble remained, and

9447-405: The SPLM said they were often detained or stopped from campaigning. Sudan Democracy First, an umbrella organisation in the north, put forward what it called strong evidence of rigging by al-Bashir's NCP. The Sudanese Network for Democracy and Elections (Sunde) spoke of harassment and intimidation in the south, by the security forces of the SPLM. Al-Bashir had achieved economic growth in Sudan. This

9588-533: The Sudanese authorities must detain him and turn him over to the ICC if he refuses. Al-Bashir was the first sitting head of state ever indicted by the ICC. However, the Arab League and the African Union condemned the warrant. Following the indictment Al-Bashir visited China, Djibouti , Egypt, Ethiopia, India , Libya, Nigeria , Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates , and several other countries, all of which refused to have him arrested. ICC member state Chad also refused to arrest al-Bashir during

9729-454: The Sudanese authorities. Al-Bashir in his speech said that his government's priority was to end the armed rebellion and tribal conflicts in order to save blood and direct the energies of young people towards building Sudan instead of "killing and destruction". He called upon youth of the rebel groups to lay down arms and join efforts to build the country. Al Bashir sees himself as a man wronged and misunderstood. He takes full responsibility for

9870-406: The Sudanese government was reportedly considering sending fighter jets to accompany his plane to Qatar, possibly in response to France expressing support for an operation to intercept his plane in international airspace, as France has military bases in Djibouti and the United Arab Emirates. The charges against al-Bashir have been criticized and ignored in Sudan and abroad, particularly in Africa and

10011-488: The Sudanese overture (made by al-Bashir in the letter to Hamilton), the U.S. State Department, under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright 's directive, first announced it would return American diplomats to Khartoum to pursue counterterrorism data in the Mukhabarat 's possession. Within days, the U.S. reversed that decision and imposed harsher and more comprehensive economic, trade, and financial sanctions against Sudan, which went into effect in October 1997. In August 1998, in

10152-494: The United Nations called for al-Bashir to make efforts to end the conflict and allow humanitarian and international workers to deliver relief to the southern regions of Sudan. Much progress was made throughout 2003. The peace was consolidated with the official signing by both sides of the Nairobi Comprehensive Peace Agreement 9 January 2005, granting Southern Sudan autonomy for six years, to be followed by

10293-622: The Western influence upon some [of these] countries is strong. We believe that the Chinese expansion was natural because it filled the space left by Western governments, the United States, and international funding agencies. The success of the Sudanese experiment in dealing with China without political conditions or pressures encouraged other African countries to look toward China." Chadian President Idriss Déby visited Khartoum in 2010 and Chad kicked out

10434-630: The adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive. The term was found in English in a 1937 report on the Second Sino-Japanese War . The retreating Chinese forces burned crops and destroyed infrastructure including cities to sabotage the logistics of the advancing Japanese forces. Clausewitz wrote in Principles of War : In defensive just as in offensive warfare, it

10575-406: The analysts renewed their doubts and told Assistant Secretary of State Phyllis Oakley that the C.I.A.'s evidence on which the attack was based was inadequate. Ms. Oakley asked them to double-check; perhaps there was some intelligence they had not yet seen. The answer came back quickly: There was no additional evidence. Ms. Oakley called a meeting of key aides and a consensus emerged: Contrary to what

10716-593: The area took centuries to recover from the damage. During the Hundred Years' War , both the English and the French conducted chevauchée raids over the enemy territory to damage its infrastructure. Robert the Bruce counselled using scorched earth to frustrate the invasion of Scotland by Edward I of England , according to an anonymous 14th-century poem: in strait places gar keep all store, And byrnen ye plainland them before, That they shall pass away in haist What that they find na thing but waist. ... This

10857-571: The army." He received his primary education there , and his family later moved to Khartoum North where he completed his secondary education and became a supporter of Al-Hilal . Al-Bashir is married to his cousin Fatima Khalid. He also has a second wife named Widad Babiker Omer, who had a number of children with her first husband Ibrahim Shamsaddin, a member of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation who had died in

10998-442: The candidates in the 2010 Sudanese presidential election , the first democratic election with multiple political parties participating since the 1986 election . It had been suggested that by holding and winning a legitimate presidential elections in 2010, al-Bashir had hoped to evade the ICC's warrant for his arrest. On 26 April, he was officially declared the winner after Sudan's election commission announced he had received 68% of

11139-493: The capture and arrest on Sudanese soil of Carlos the Jackal . In early 1996, al-Bashir authorized his Defense Minister at the time, El Fatih Erwa, to make a series of secret trips to the United States to hold talks with American officials, including officers of the CIA and United States Department of State about American sanctions policy against Sudan and what measures might be taken by

11280-498: The carrions, happy where they could find them, yea, and one another soon after, in so much as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves; and if they found a plot of water-cresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able long to continue therewithal; that in a short space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man or beast. In early 1565, Grandmaster Jean Parisot de Valette ordered

11421-607: The chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation, he allied himself with Hassan al-Turabi , the leader of the National Islamic Front , who, along with al-Bashir, began institutionalizing Sharia law in the northern part of Sudan. Further on, al-Bashir issued purges and executions of people whom he alleged to be coup leaders in the upper ranks of the army, the banning of associations, political parties, and independent newspapers, as well as

11562-456: The city as it quickly burned. Omar al-Bashir President of Sudan Government Wars Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir (born 1 January 1944) is a Sudanese former military officer and politician who served as Sudan's head of state under various titles from 1989 until 2019, when he was deposed in a coup d'état . He was subsequently incarcerated, tried and convicted on multiple corruption charges. He came to power in 1989 when, as

11703-456: The civil war. The origin of the word Muraheleen ( Arabic : المراحلين ) is attributed to the Messiria tribe who used the word to describe "travellers". Historically, the Muraheleen's primary duty was to guide the cattle herds ahead of their tribe during the seasonal migration. They would ride horses, carry weapons for self-defence, and safeguard their herds from predators and cattle thieves. In

11844-440: The conflict in Darfur, he says, but says that his government did not start the fighting and has done everything in its power to end it. Al Bashir had signed two peace agreements for Darfur: The agreement also provided for power sharing at the national level: movements that sign the agreement will be entitled to nominate two ministers and two four ministers of state at the federal level and will be able to nominate 20 members to

11985-442: The country. American officials insisted the secret meetings were agreed only to pressure Sudan into compliance on a range of anti-terrorism issues. The Sudanese insisted that an offer to extradite bin Laden had been made in a secret one-on-one meeting at a Fairfax hotel between Erwa and the then CIA Africa Bureau chief on condition that Washington end sanctions against Bashir's regime. Ambassador Timothy M. Carney attended one of

12126-532: The defector's properties. Belgrano labored to win the support of the populace and later reported that most of the people had willingly followed him without the need for force. The exodus started on 23 August and gathered people from Jujuy and Salta . People travelled south about 250 km and finally arrived at the banks of the Pasaje River, in Tucumán Province in the early hours of 29 August. They applied

12267-536: The depths of the steppes after they had destroyed food supplies and poisoned wells . The Greek general Xenophon recorded in his Anabasis that the withdrawing enemy burnt up the grass and everything else that was good for use in front of the Ten Thousand . During the Second Punic War in 218–202 BCE , both Carthaginians and Romans used the method selectively during Hannibal's invasion of Italy . After

12408-594: The early to mid 1990s. Sudan's Islamist links with international terrorist organizations represented a special matter of concern for the American government, leading to Sudan's 1993 designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and a suspension of U.S. Embassy operations in Khartoum in 1996. In late 1994, in an initial effort to reverse his nation's growing image throughout the world as a country harboring terrorists, Bashir secretly cooperated with French special forces to orchestrate

12549-839: The extent of press coverage of the situation in Darfur. While the United States government has described the conflict as genocide , the UN has not recognized the conflict as such. ( see List of declarations of genocide in Darfur ) The United States Government stated in September 2004 "that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and that genocide may still be occurring". On 29 June 2004, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met with al-Bashir in Sudan and urged him to make peace with

12690-467: The famine. During the war the Sudanese Armed Forces revived the use of enslavement as a weapon against the south, and particularly Christian prisoners of war, on the basis that Islamic law purportedly allowed it. Human Rights Watch and others have described the contemporary form of slavery in Sudan as mainly the work of the armed, government-backed militia of the Baggara tribes, including

12831-675: The fields were burned. However, the story that they salted the earth is apocryphal . The system of punitive destruction of property and subjugation of people when accompanying a military campaign was known as vastatio . Two of the first uses of scorched earth recorded happened in the Gallic Wars . The first was used when the Celtic Helvetii were forced to evacuate their homes in Southern Germany and Switzerland because of incursions of unfriendly Germanic tribes : to add incentive to

12972-541: The government. Further on, al-Turabi's influence and that of his party's "'internationalist' and ideological wing" waned "in favor of the 'nationalist' or more pragmatic leaders who focus on trying to recover from Sudan's disastrous international isolation and economic damage that resulted from ideological adventurism". At the same time, Sudan worked to appease the United States and other international critics by expelling members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and encouraging bin Laden to leave. On al-Bashir's orders, al-Turabi

13113-423: The green light to float a new currency called Sudanese dinar to replace the battered old Sudanese pound that had lost 90 percent of its worth during the turbulent 1980s; the currency was later changed back to pounds, but at a much higher rate. He was later elected president (with a five-year term) in the 1996 national election , where he was the only candidate legally allowed to run for election. Omar al-Bashir

13254-607: The harvesting of all the crops in Malta, including unripened grain, to deprive the Ottomans of any local food supplies since spies had warned of an imminent Ottoman attack. Furthermore, the Knights poisoned all of the wells with bitter herbs and dead animals. The Ottomans arrived on 18 May, and the Great Siege of Malta began. The Ottomans managed to capture one fort but were eventually defeated by

13395-475: The image of the hell which they deserve". During the third Napoleonic invasion of Portugal in 1810, the Portuguese population retreated towards Lisbon and was ordered to destroy all the food supplies the French might capture as well as forage and shelter in a wide belt across the country. (Although effective food-preserving techniques had recently been invented, they were still not fit for military use because

13536-442: The imprisonment of leading political figures and journalists. On 16 October 1993, al-Bashir's increased his power when he appointed himself President of the country, after which he disbanded the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation and all other rival political parties. The executive and legislative powers of the council were later given to al-Bashir completely. In the early 1990s, al-Bashir's administration gave

13677-414: The journey. The rest (houses, crops, food stocks and any objects made of iron) was to be burned to deprive the Royalists of resources. The strict scorched-earth policy made him ask on 29 July 1812 the people of Jujuy to "show their heroism " and to join the march of the army under his command "if, as you assure, you want to be free". The punishment for ignoring the order was execution, with the destruction of

13818-457: The killing of 1,500 Malual Dinka refugees in the 1987 Dhein Massacre . In addition, Nimeiry used the militia against southern rebels . The armed Rizeigat and Messiria Humr horsemen, wearing white long robes, were as a low cost way of weakening the Sudan's government enemies during the Second Sudanese Civil War , including the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement /Army (SPLM/A), which has

13959-430: The many civilian casualties, including the killing of 150 men, Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr. , Sherman's brother-in-law, issued US Army General Order No. 11 (1863) to order the near-total evacuation of three-and-a-half counties in western Missouri , south of Kansas City, which were subsequently looted and burned by US Army troops. Under Sherman's overall direction, General Philip Sheridan followed that policy in

14100-502: The march of Julian, he beheld the melancholy face of a smoking and naked desert. This desperate but effectual method of defence can only be executed by the enthusiasm of a people who prefer their independence to their property; or by the rigor of an arbitrary government, which consults the public safety without submitting to their inclinations the liberty of choice. During the First Fitna (656–661), Muawiyah I sent Busr ibn Abi Artat to

14241-726: The march, the Helvetii destroyed everything they could not bring. The second case shows actual military value: during the Great Gallic War the Gauls under Vercingetorix planned to lure the Roman armies into Gaul and then trap and obliterate them. They thus ravaged the countryside of what are now the Benelux countries and France. This caused immense problems for the Romans, but the Roman military triumphs over

14382-491: The mid-1990s, a feud between al-Bashir and al-Turabi began, mostly due to al-Turabi's links to Islamic fundamentalist groups, as well as allowing them to operate out of Sudan, even personally inviting Osama bin Laden to the country. The United States had listed Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1993, mostly due to al-Bashir and Hassan al-Turabi taking complete power in the early 1990s. U.S . firms have been barred from doing business in Sudan since 1997. In 1998,

14523-447: The militia also joined Paulino Matip Nhial , who fought on the side of the government between 1998 and 2003, in forcibly removing civilians from the Block 5A oil concession area, and assisting in clearances from other oil blocks. The Muraheleen role diminished after the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement , which aimed to end the civil war. Scorched earth A scorched-earth policy

14664-592: The national legislature. The movements will be entitled to nominate two state governors in the Darfur region. On 14 July 2008, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo , alleged that al-Bashir bore individual criminal responsibility for genocide , crimes against humanity , and war crimes that had been committed in Darfur since 2003. The prosecutor accused al-Bashir of having "masterminded and implemented"

14805-469: The new military government suspended political parties and introduced an Islamic legal code on the national level. He then became chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation (a newly established body with legislative and executive powers for what was described as a transitional period), and assumed the posts of chief of state , prime minister, chief of the armed forces, and Minister of Defence . Subsequent to al-Bashir's promotion to

14946-444: The organization emphasizes its solidarity with Sudan and condemned the warrant for "undermining the unity and stability of Sudan". The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation denounced the warrant as unwarranted and totally unacceptable. It argued that the warrant demonstrated "selectivity and double standard applied in relation to issues of war crimes". There have been large demonstrations by Sudanese people supporting Bashir and opposing

15087-488: The peak of the civil war in 1989, female black slaves were sold for 90 dollars at the slave markets. Several years later, the price of an average female black slave had dropped to $ 15. Many Western organisations traveled to Sudan with funds to purchase and emancipate these enslaved captives. Officially, the Muraheleen were incorporated into the Popular Defence Forces , a premilitary force established officially under

15228-542: The previous five years. Ijaz conveyed his findings to US officials upon his return, including Sandy Berger , then Clinton's deputy national security adviser, and argued for the US to constructively engage the Sudanese and other Islamic countries. In April 1997, Ijaz persuaded al-Bashir to make an unconditional offer of counterterrorism assistance in the form of a signed presidential letter that Ijaz delivered to Congressman Lee H. Hamilton by hand. In late September 1997, months after

15369-539: The quartermaster or commissary departments to be issued as if furnished from our Northern depots. But much was destroyed without receipts to owners when it could not be brought within our lines and would otherwise have gone to the support of secession and rebellion. This policy I believe exercised a material influence in hastening the end. General Sherman used that policy during his March to the Sea . Another event, in response to William Quantrill 's raid on Lawrence, Kansas , and

15510-516: The rebels, end the crisis, and lift restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Darfur. Kofi Annan met with al-Bashir three days later and demanded that he disarm the Janjaweed. After fighting stopped in July and August, on 31 August 2006, the United Nations Security Council had approved Resolution 1706 which called for a new UN peacekeeping force consisting of 17,300 military personnel and 3,300 civilians and named

15651-545: The region. In March 2007, the United Nations Human Rights Council accused Sudan's government of taking part in "gross violations" in Darfur and urged the international community to take urgent action to protect people in Darfur. A high-level technical consultation was held in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia, on 11– 12 June 2007, pursuant to the 4 June 2007 letters of the secretary-general and the chairperson of

15792-477: The retreating army first, and will be mostly consumed. Nothing remains but wasted villages and towns, fields from which the crops have been gathered, or which are trampled down, empty wells, and muddy brooks. The pursuing army, therefore, from the very first day, has frequently to contend with the most pressing wants. Notable historic examples of successful scorched-earth tactics include the failed Swedish , French and German invasion of Russia , Sherman's march to

15933-649: The ruined Roman fortress of Chester in late summer 893, planning to raid northern Mercia from the refortified fortress. But the Mercians destroyed all crops and livestock in the surrounding countryside and expelled the Vikings successfully. In the Harrying of the North , William the Conqueror 's solution to stop a rebellion in 1069 was the brutal conquest and subjugation of northern England . William's men burnt whole villages from

16074-482: The same was a most rich and plentiful country, full of corn and cattle, that you would have thought they could have been able to stand long, yet ere one year and a half they were brought to such wretchedness, as that any stony heart would have rued the same. Out of every corner of the wood and glens they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them; they looked Anatomies [of] death, they spoke like ghosts, crying out of their graves; they did eat of

16215-479: The scorched-earth policy came into effect again because even though some large supply dumps had been established on the advance, the route between them had both been scorched and marched over once already. Thus, the French army starved as it marched along the resource-depleted invasion route. In August 1812, Argentine General Manuel Belgrano led the Jujuy Exodus , a massive forced displacement of people from what

16356-690: The sea during the American Civil War , Kit Carson 's campaign during the Navajo Wars in 1863 and Lord Kitchener 's methods in the Anglo-Boer War . The Scythians used scorched-earth methods against the Persian Achaemenid Empire , led by King Darius the Great , during his European Scythian campaign . The Scythians, who were nomadic herders, evaded the Persian invaders and retreated into

16497-453: The seven skies, gave us the opportunity to reciprocate the visit," he said. "The forces which entered Tripoli, part of their arms and capabilities, were 100% Sudanese," he told the crowd. His speech was well received by a large crowd in the eastern Sudanese town of Kassala. But the easy availability of weapons in Libya, and that country's poorly guarded border with Darfur, are also of great concern to

16638-575: The southern rebel SPLA. The militia also deployed against the Nuba peoples , to crush the rebellions in the Nuba Mountains ( South Kordofan and Blue Nile states). In 2004, experts of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights accused that militia of participating in the Darfur genocide by targeting Masalit , Daju , Tunjur , and Zaghawa people. The 1987 Dhein Massacre took place in

16779-683: The southern region of Darfur , the Rizeigat tribe has a similar group known as the fursan , an Arabic term meaning horsemen or cavaliers. The border dispute between the Malual Dinka from northern Bahr el Ghazal (today in South Sudan ) and the Baggara Arabs from southern Darfur and southern Kordofan originated in the mid-19th century. Upon their departure from Sudan in 1956, the British ensured that

16920-489: The southerners to vote in a referendum of independence at the end of the six-year period. On 9 July 2011, following a referendum, the region of Southern Sudan split off from Sudan to form South Sudan . Since 1968, Sudanese politicians had attempted to create separate factions of "Africans" and "Arabs" in the western area of Darfur , a difficult task as the population were substantially intermarried and could not be distinguished by skin tone. This internal political instability

17061-469: The speaker of parliament, in a palace coup . He was reelected by popular vote for a five-year term during the 2000 Sudanese general election . From 2005 to 2010, a transitional government was set up under a 2005 peace accord that ended the 21-year long Second Sudanese Civil War and saw the formation of a power-sharing agreement between Salva Kiir 's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and al Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP). Al-Bashir

17202-434: The support from Libya after the death of Muammar Gaddafi and the collapse of his regime in 2011. In July 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo , accused al-Bashir of genocide , crimes against humanity , and war crimes in Darfur. The court issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on 4 March 2009 on counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but ruled that there

17343-665: The town of Dhein , located in Southern Darfur. Over two days, 27–28 March, a large number of Dinka children, women, and men were brutally killed, burnt to death, and seized as booty or ghanīma . Some members of the Rizeigat Arabs, and others in the town, including certain merchants in Dhein, who were all part of the Muraheleen, carried out the massacre. The Muraheleen played a key role in the 1988 and 1998 famines in Bahr el Ghazal . During

17484-399: The two forcible instruments of persuasion, steel and gold, would easily procure a plentiful subsistence from the fears or avarice of the natives. But, on the approach of the Romans, the rich and smiling prospect was instantly blasted. Wherever they moved ... the cattle was driven away; the grass and ripe corn were consumed with fire; and, as soon as the flames had subsided which interrupted

17625-619: The wake of the East Africa embassy bombings , the U.S. launched cruise missile strikes against Khartoum. U.S. Ambassador to Sudan, Tim Carney, departed post in February 1996 and no new ambassador was designated until December 2019, when U.S. president Donald Trump 's administration reached an agreement with the new Sudanese government to exchange ambassadors. Al-Bashir announced in August 2015 that he would travel to New York in September to speak at

17766-403: The warrant by expelling a number of international aid agencies , including Oxfam and Mercy Corps . President Bashir described the aid agencies as thieves who take "99 percent of the budget for humanitarian work themselves, giving the people of Darfur 1 percent" and as spies in the work of foreign regimes. Bashir promised that national agencies will provide aid to Darfur. Al-Bashir was one of

17907-465: The women and children as slaves. The first slave raid on the Dinka took place in February 1986. Two thousand women and children were taken. In a second raid, in February 1987, one thousand women and children were taken. Once the raiders acquired enough booty they would distribute the captives between themselves and their families. The raids continued every year after. Since 1989, an essential responsibility of

18048-470: Was a journalist, politician, and noted opponent of South Sudan. As a boy, he was nicknamed 'Omeira' – Little Omar. He belongs to the Banu Bedaria , a Bedouin tribe belonging to the larger Ja'alin coalition, a Sudanese Arab tribe in middle north of Sudan (once a part of the Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan ). As a child, Al-Bashir loved football . "Always in defence," a cousin said. "That's why he went into

18189-401: Was accomplished without bloodshed and tended to the same result as the destruction of armies. I continued this policy to the close of the war. Promiscuous pillaging, however, was discouraged and punished. Instructions were always given to take provisions and forage under the direction of commissioned officers who should give receipts to owners, if at home, and turn the property over to officers of

18330-401: Was aggravated by cross-border conflicts with Chad and Libya and the 1984–1985 Darfur famine. In 2003, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudanese Liberation Army –accusing the government of neglecting Darfur and oppressing non-Arabs in favor of Arabs – began an armed insurgency. Estimates vary of the number of deaths resulting from attacks on the non-Arab/Arabized population by

18471-571: Was born on 1 January 1944 in Hosh Bannaga , a village on the outskirts of Shendi , just north of the capital, Khartoum , to a family that hails from the Ja'alin tribe of northern Sudan . His mother was Hedieh Mohamed al-Zain, who died in 2019. His father, Hassan ibn Ahmed, was a smalltime dairy farmer. He is the second among twelve brothers and sisters, his younger brother Othman was killed in South Sudan during his presidency. His uncle, Al Taib Mustafa ,

18612-407: Was caused by a combination of natural conditions, such as a two-year drought caused by El Niño–Southern Oscillation , and human actions. The Muraheleen's government-backed raids on the Dinka people caused displacement and hindered farming. The raids also involved the theft of cattle, looting of grain, burning of crops and homes, and seizing of women and children as booty, played a major role in causing

18753-663: Was elected president (with a five-year term) in the 1996 national election and Hassan al-Turabi was elected to a seat in the National Assembly where he served as speaker of the National Assembly "during the 1990s". In 1998, al-Bashir and the Presidential Committee put into effect a new constitution, allowing limited political associations in opposition to al-Bashir's National Congress Party and his supporters to be formed. On 12 December 1999, al-Bashir sent troops and tanks against parliament and ousted Hassan al-Turabi ,

18894-535: Was imprisoned based on allegations of conspiracy in 2000 before being released in October 2003. Al-Turabi was again imprisoned in March 2004 and released in July 2005, at the height of the peace agreement in the civil war. From the early 1990s, after al-Bashir assumed power, Sudan backed Iraq in its invasion of Kuwait and was accused of harboring and providing sanctuary and assistance to Islamic terrorist groups. Carlos

19035-586: Was in the Western Command from 1967 to 1969 and then the Airborne Forces from 1969 to 1987 until he was appointed commander of the 8th Infantry Brigade (independent) from the period 1987 to 30 June 1989. When he returned to Sudan as a colonel in the Sudanese Army , al-Bashir led a group of army officers in ousting the unstable coalition government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi in a bloodless military coup on 30 June 1989. Under al-Bashir's leadership,

19176-490: Was insufficient evidence to prosecute him for genocide. However, Usacka wrote a dissenting opinion arguing that there were "reasonable grounds to believe that Omar Al Bashir has committed the crime of genocide". Sudan is not a state party to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, and thus claims that it does not have to execute the warrant. However, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1593 (2005) referred Sudan to

19317-456: Was insufficient evidence to prosecute him for genocide. However, on 12 July 2010, the court issued a second warrant containing three separate counts of genocide. The new warrant, like the first, was delivered to the Sudanese government , which did not recognize either the warrant or the ICC. The indictments do not allege that Bashir personally took part in such activities; instead, they say that he

19458-626: Was laid in ashes, in order to leave the enemy nothing but ruins. In 1688, France attacked the German Electoral Palatinate . The German states responded by forming an alliance and assembling a sizeable armed force to push the French out of Germany. The French had not prepared for such an eventuality. Realising that the war in Germany was not going to end quickly and that the war would not be a brief and decisive parade of French glory, Louis XIV and War Minister Marquis de Louvois resolved upon

19599-507: Was prevented from using its usual doctrine of living off the lands that it conquered. Pushing relentlessly on despite dwindling numbers, the Grand Army met with disaster as the invasion progressed. Napoleon's army arrived in a virtually-abandoned Moscow , which was a tattered starving shell of its former self, largely because of scorched-earth tactics by the retreating Russians. Having conquered essentially nothing, Napoleon's troops retreated, but

19740-576: Was pushed further by the drilling and extraction of oil- However, economic growth was not shared by all. Headline inflation in 2012 approached the threshold of chronic inflation (period average 36%), about 11% up from the budget projection of 2012 reflecting the combined effects of inflationary financing, the depreciation of the exchange rate, and the continued removal of subsidies, as well as high food and energy prices. This economic downturn prompted cost of living riots that erupted into Arab Spring -style anti-government demonstrations, raising discontent within

19881-556: Was reelected president in the 2010 Sudanese general election with 68% of the popular vote; while Salva Kiir was elected President of Southern Sudan . These elections were agreed on earlier in the 2005 peace accord. The election was marked by corruption, intimidation, and inequality. European observers, from the European Union and the Carter Center , criticised the polls as "not meeting international standards". Candidates opposed to

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