Gold Rush in Darfur

Just a decade after genocide in Darfur, the region has once again been plagued by violence and infighting, this time because of large quantities of gold recently being discovered deep below the Sudanese ground. The mad dash to cultivate the massive amount of gold has made way for "state-sponsored violence" as the Sudanese government attempts to extract as much as possible from this new source of wealth.

"Humanitarian groups say the Sudanese government, led by accused war criminal President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, is pitting tribes against each other in a bid to get the most possible out of some 4,000 mines."

Led by al-Bashir, the Sudanese government is using the desperation of a poor and war-torn population to encourage infighting in order to concentrate the government's grip on the gold. The Sudanese president has thus far relied on loyal tribes to eliminate would-be threats to the government's extraction of the gold from privately cultivating their own share of the prize. In essence, al-Bashir is ensuring that minimal amounts of the newly found wealth find its way into the possession of private individuals. Rather, al-Bashir is promoting tribal violence in order to extract the gold through tribes that have already proven themselves loyal to his regime.

The ongoing situation in Darfur is not unlike the numerous examples of extractive institutions that defined the development of Latin America over the course of the past 500 years. In particular, the Spanish extraction of gold from their new world colonies provides an apt comparison for the extractive nature of the Sudanese government's response to the new sums of wealth. Just as conquistadors hoarded gold from the New World that would be extracted for the crown, al-Bashir is using his loyal tribes to claim as much gold as possible in an arrangement that will no doubt be mutually beneficial to the Sudanese government and the tribes that it chooses to sponsor. However, extractive institutions such as these leave the rest of the population in the dust and represent a stark contrast to inclusive institutions that would instead promote and encourage cooperative arrangements that benefit society collectively.