SUMMARY

The governmental militia called the Janjaweed have mostly been involved in one-sided violence, i.e. deliberate attacks on civilians. But at some times it has also been involved in fighting against the rebel movements in Darfur. This type of lighting is on a small scale in comparison to the attacks on villages and civilians. Fighting between the Darfurian rebels and the Janjaweed is understandable when viewing the Darfurian context. The Janjaweed is closely connected to the Government of Sudan that the rebels are fighting and the Janjaweed are attacking villages inhabited by the ethnic groups that the rebel groups are recruiting from. It has also several times been reported that many people have joined the Darfurian rebel groups because their villages have been attacked by the Janjaweed. The rebel groups have sometimes been asked by villagers to protect them against the Janjaweed and some clashes between rebels and the militia are attributed to such defensive activities. Fighting between the Janjaweed and the Darfur rebels has involved both the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A). The focus here is the fighting between the Janjaweed and the JEM, but the Janjaweed struggle against SLM/A has similar causes and is of the same type. The JEM fighting against the Janjaweed is mostly concentrated to 2003.

The non-state conflict between Janjaweed and JEM is first included in UCDP data in 2003. In November that year clashes between the two groups resulted in over 180 battle-related deaths.