The violence in Darfur has been raging for far too many years. With continuing attacks and insecurity stemming from the 2003-2004 genocide, the Darfuri people are still waiting for a moment to breathe, a chance to take back their lives and return to a life of peace in their homeland. The United Nations can and should do more to protect the people of Darfur.

Please sign the following letter to the United Nations demanding we do more to make peace possible in Darfur. Actions have been written by experts at The Enough Project. 

Petition letter:

Dear UN Secretary General António Guterres,

It has been more than 15 years since the beginning of the genocide in Darfur, and the Darfuri people remain displaced, remain in danger. They are unable to return home for fear of violence, and for many, their homes have been taken over by new settlers since they left. Perpetrators of violence need to be held accountable, and the United Nations needs to live up to its responsibility to the citizens of Darfur.

This is not a new conflict. This is not an unknown conflict. This is a conflict the international community has continually failed to fully respond to and address with the resources and attention it requires. We implore you to take action. We ask that you stand up for the people of Darfur, and act for their future.

We believe the following recommendations, written by experts at The Enough Project, will help make peace possible for the people of Darfur:

1. Ensure that UNAMID monitor and report on incidents of attacks by government militias and new settlers on IDPs who attempt to return to areas from which they were forcibly evicted by government forces and auxiliary militias during the course of the fifteen-year conflict.
2. Advise the UN Security Council to make the full phase-out of UNAMID contingent upon the Government of Sudan’s full compliance with all the provisions of previous UNSC binding resolutions requiring the government to ensure the informed, dignified, and secure return of the 2.5 million IDPs to their areas of origin.
3. Where such areas had been occupied by new settlers, the UNSC should require the Government of Sudan to resolve any land disputes peacefully, including finding alternatives for the new settlers.
4. The Government of Sudan should be required to dismantle its auxiliary and other tribal militias throughout the region, and to launch a credible and verifiable process for the disarmament of civilians particularly in all five states of Darfur as required under the security arrangements of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), serving as a framework for the peace process.
5. Also the Government of Sudan should be required to fulfill its commitments under the DDPD to implement a comprehensive reparations program to uphold the rights of the millions of victims of the conflict in Darfur to justice, compensation for their material losses and for those killed, maimed, or disappeared during the violence, and to allow returning IDPs and refugees to regain their livelihoods.

Short of these actions, Darfur is unlikely to return to the peaceful co-existence that prevailed among its communities prior to when the Government of Sudan’s genocidal campaign of 2003-4 tore the social fabric of the region.