The Gangs of Omaha: Sudanese Who Fled Their War-Torn Country Face Growing Violence in Their Ranks

Interstate 80 begins in Teaneck, New Jersey and ends in San Francisco. It was blandly renamed the "Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways" in 1990, and its flat, unencumbered concrete path continues to connect travelers from the East to the West, though few use it as a point of entry to Omaha, Nebraska, choosing to disregard the bright green sign advertising the state slogan ("The Good Life") and keep on driving. In the late 1990s, however, something changed the city irrevocably. A group of Sudanese refugees decided to move there, despite the long winters and the unyielding suburban landscape of eastern Nebraska. They settled in Omaha because of the low unemployment rate, because people with low levels of education can still make decent wages, and because there was subsidized housing available. As the years passed, more Sudanese Americans arrived, and the population swelled to upwards of 9,000, with another 5,000 in Lincoln, a forty-five minute drive away. Though many don't know it, this area has become the home to the largest Sudanese refugee population in the country.

Now, nearly 8,000 miles away from the violence in Darfur, Sudanese residents of Omaha are experiencing their own share of turbulence in this unassuming Midwestern city. And they're fed up with it.

Dak More is a former Sudanese gang member who has recently started his own private security force, patrolling the Sudanese communities in North and South Omaha, as well as the projects on 24th and Mason, trying to get teenagers to stop joining gangs. He was involved in gang life when he was in his teens, but became disillusioned with it last year, saying, "I have three kids I want to take care of and I didn't know what they were fighting for." His father died in 1986 in the second Sudanese civil war, where nearly two million were killed and four million fled--becoming refugees or IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons). More was ten years old and his brother was nineteen when they were able to come to the U.S. They spent some time in California in the late 90s, then moved to join the burgeoning Sudanese community in Omaha, where he went to high school. Last year, his mother was finally able to join them, but by then he was already a man.

More is a lanky twenty year old with close-cropped hair and an indifferent way of throwing out a sentence that reveals his age. A large black t-shirt hangs from his bony shoulders. He glances at me, then looks away, mumbling, "Every weekend you hear the news--Sudanese on Sudanese."

Seventeen-year-old Buomkoth Tang was driving his car down Ida Street last Easter Sunday. A witness said he pointed a gun at Keenon Robertson, who was walking down the street with an SKS assault rifle aimed at Tang. Seconds later, Tang was shot in the stomach. He ran from his car and made it about thirty blocks before he was found, then hospitalized. Omaha has had its share of gang violence since the late 80s, when the Bloods and Crips arrived to cash in on the emerging crack market. However, Sudanese gangs are an entirely new phenomenon arising in this city of half a million residents. Tang is allegedly a member of the "South Sudan Soldiers," a gang made up of mostly Nuer youth who have established a growing presence in the Omaha area since its founding last year. As More said, there's been a lot of fighting between Sudanese, but the shooting last Easter was the first instance of African-American-on-Sudanese gang violence.

Bruce Ferrell, a retired Omaha police officer, is the chairman of the Midwest Gang Investigators Association estimates that there are three Sudanese gangs in Omaha right now (More claims there are fourteen.) Ferrell said the first gangs in Omaha began in 2004--MJ, a Nuer acronym for "Dog Pussy," and Afrikan Pride. Others followed, like MOB, GBLOCK, 402 (the area code for eastern Nebraska), South Sudan Soldiers, and TripSet. Gang members are mostly Nuer and Dinka, and, predictably, live in low-income neighborhoods. They are the children of refugees or are refugees themselves, coming from camps in Ethiopia, Egypt, and beyond, but ending up adrift in the middle of America.