Political+Impact+-+RG+-+SP12

The political impact of the JEM (Sudan) has reached new heights as kidnappings have been increasing in the past year. Peace talks have been on the verge of ending the “war”. Yet nothing has actually made it all come to an end. The African Union has continued to try to make peace but it doesn’t resolve the issues. Peacekeepers have been kidnapped and aids have been taken away. Arrest warrants have been issued and leaders have been killed. This is all a direct result of the inequality in Darfur causing rebel groups such as the JEM along with the SLA to rebel. Other countries have not attempted to help anyone in Darfur but the process of peace has been often disrupted by a new problem in which either the JEM don’t agree with or the government feels threatened by it. Either way the “war” will never be quite over unless politics are taken out of the equation.

The JEM were founded in 2000 after The Black Book was written. The book which was written by leader Khalil Ibrahim sparked the controversial rebelling against the Sudanese government. In recent history the JEM have been defeated by the government but as of February 13, 2012 the JEM have captured 49 international peacekeepers and 3 suspected Sudanese Intelligence Agents for investigation. This has definitely hurt the developments in Darfur. Since the beginning of the JEM there has been constant fighting and death and now that al-Bashir has said the “war is over”, members from the JEM continue to feel threatened by the Sudanese government. When the government issued the peace treaty, the JEM refused because they felt like it didn’t address the Darfur problems at its roots.

The JEM had disagreed to attend peace meetings with the Sudanese government for years. But in 2009 they signed a goodwill agreement to stop the violence and rebelling. It fell apart soon later after al-Bashir was wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court in Hague. As a result al-Bashir expelled a western aid group in Darfur causing the JEM to rebel once again. In February 2010 however peace talks began to happen again and the JEM reached a ceasefire deal with the Sudanese government in Qatar. On March 29 the JEM threatened to resume its armed rebelling if the talks were not successful for the people of Darfur. The government can expect this rebelling to continue until it comes to terms with the groups.

Al-Shabaab (Somalia) The Al-Shabaab are fighting the government for control. They wish to have full control of everything. They go through many negotiations in order to maintain control over their territory.The group has a greater chance of imposing political order over Somalia and its territories. When Al-Shabaab was added to the terrorism list in 2008, they saw it as an opening to take advantage of. They began to collect funds from other Islamist groups for support. Since then Al-Shabaab has tried to become a greater governing role.