Beni Halba

The Beni Halba is an Arab group located in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. The Beni Halba is one of the major Darfuri Baggara groups, along with the Habbaniya, Rizeigat and Ta’isha, and was granted a large "hakura" (land grant) in southern Darfur by the sultans of independent Dar Fur. [Flint, Julie and Alex de Waal, "Darfur: A Short History of a Long War", Zed Books, London, March 2006, ISBN 1-84277-697-5, p. 9] During the 1980s, recurring drought in Chad prompted several clans of Beni Halba to migrate eastwards and join their kinspeople between Geneina and Kebkabiya and Kutum. [Flint and de Waal, p. 45] In the late 1980s, the ideology then sweeping through the region combining Arab supremacy and Islamic extremism was taken up by many Beni Halba. Under Nazir al-Hadi Issa Debaker, the Beni Halba were actively involved in attacks upon the Fur people starting in 1987 through 1989. In this period a new militia called the Janjaweed, partially drawing upon the Beni Halba, was first formed. [Flint and de Waal, pp. 53-55] In 1991 the Sudan People's Liberation Army, then fighting the Second Sudanese Civil War in the south of the country, sent a force under Daud Bolad to expand the conflict into Darfur. However, Bolad's force was annihilated by a combination of the army and Beni Halba "fursan" ("horsemen"), who then carried out reprisal attacks against Fur civilians. [Flint and de Waal, p. 57] As a result, the Beni Halba district town of Idd al Ghanam ("Well of Goats") was renamed Idd al Fursan ("Well of Horseman"). [Flint and de Waal, p. 25]

As the Darfur conflict erupted in the beginning of the 2000s, the Sudanese government attempted to convince al-Hadi Issa Debaker to merge his Beni Halba with the Janjaweed. Debaker refused, stating that he would defend himself if attacked on Beni Halba land. [Flint and de Waal, p. 80] Regardless, members of the Beni Halba and other Baggara groups continue to be recruited into the Janjaweed. [Alex de Waal, [http://bostonreview.net/BR29.5/dewaal.html Tragedy in Darfur: On understanding and ending the horror] , Boston Review, October/November 2004]

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