Omer Ismail is from El Fashir, North Darfur, Sudan. He left Sudan in 1989, although most of his family remained there. Tensions started escalating in Darfur throughout the 1990s, with increasingly violent attacks against civilians beginning in 2001.
Ismail tried to engage policymakers in the simmering conflict, but to no avail. Only in 2004, one year into the intense conflict and not until after the genocide was underway, did international audiences start paying attention.
Ismail became a leader of the activist movement against the genocide, speaking across the United States and internationally about what was happening in Darfur.
