Darfur Photo Essay: Rebels and Refugees
Civil conflict in Chad spills over into neighboring Sudan.
Thu Mar. 30, 2006 12:00 AM PST
El Geneina is a dusty frontier town on the edge of Western Darfur, about thirty kilometers from the border with Chad, Sudan?s weaker, poorer, and increasingly unstable neighbor. There is only one spot of pavement in the town, a couple square meters of blacktop reserved for the Sudanese military?s three massive Russian Mi-24 attack helicopters.
The helicopters cut through the desert landscape in El Geneina, where donkey carts and men on horseback far outnumber motorized vehicles. You might not think a place like this?one of the most landlocked spots in Africa?would also be one of the continent?s most diverse. But each day dozens of peacekeepers from Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya and South Africa, aid workers from American and Europe, contractors from China, and native Sudanese fly in and out rickety turboprops flown by Russian pilots.
In the past few months a new group of international visitors has come to town: heavily armed rebels from Chad.
?Chad is a sister state to Darfur.? Says Dr. Eltayeb Hag Ateya, the director of the Center for Conflict Research at the University of Khartoum. ?You cannot do anything in Darfur without thinking of Chad. All the presidents of Chad are either installed by or forced out by forces that have come from Darfur.?
Eight to nine thousand Chadian rebels, mostly army defectors, have arrived in wide swath of Western Darfur, given over to them by the central government in Sudan?s capital, Khartoum. There they are training, planning, and coordinating their takedown of the government of Chadian President Idriss Deby.
In contrast to the Sudanese rebel groups in Darfur, the Chadians are equipped with new cars, equipment, and heavy artillery weapons. They are a formidable fighting force and pose a real threat to civilians on both sides of the border.
Many of these rebels? children, wives, and parents live apart from them, a short drive from El Geneina. (The rebels' camps are quite a few hours outside of town, across punishing terrain.) For fear these refugees might pass along any supplies to their armed relatives, organizations like the U.N.?s refugee body, UNHCR, have so far held back from providing them with aid, leaving the task to groups like Catholic Relief Services.
Khalia Daoud is one of the recent arrivals, living in a small straw hut, box-like, lined up with others like it in neat rows. Inside her home there is a bowl, a mat, a few pieces of cloth--nothing more. She squats in the shade of her straw hut, which provides little protection from the desert?s chilly nighttime winds.
A mother of six, Khalia fled from Chad to Darfur more than a month ago. Still, she is glad to be free from the violent turmoil in her village. ?It seems as if we are welcome here. No one has harassed us yet,? she said.
The conflict in Darfur is now entering its third agonizing year. Ultimately, the determined obstructionism of the Sudanese government to bring an effective international peacekeeping force with a strong leadership will ensure that the number and diversity of places like El Geneina will only grow, swelled by refugees and rebels alike.Continues Below
Continued From Above
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Thom Hartmann is traveling to Darfur in the Sudan with other talk show hosts to bring "Sacks of Hope" & to provide awareness of the Sudanese Refugees March 10-18 2008
He will be doing his AAR radio show from Darfur by sat'phone on March 14th
http://www.airamerica.com/thomhartmannpage/node/222
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i think they should sund a bunch of american soldiers to sudan the thing in iraq is getting better i mourn for the sudanese people i will pray for the poor souls who have perished in this genocide and ask god to help them and to forgive them of all their sins.
the sad fact is, our government is run by money. if there is nothing in it for those in charge they will not do anything. all we can do is spread the word and get more people to volunteer to send aid, and to lobby for government help.
and what do you mean, "they should sund a bunch of american soldiers" and "help them and to forgive them of all their sins"? US soldiers would just complicate the situation more. it is an oil-rich region and that would soon become the main objective. and how are the refugees who are being attacked the ones who are sinning? that kind of paternalism helps no one. if you want to help them, actually take action. lobby the government for aid! send them some food!!! or if you dont know how, donate to someone so they can!!
And, by the way, Iraq is not getting better. we have destroyed their infrastructure and used it as a way to get taxpayer money into cheney's pockets through no-bid contracts with haliburton. we do NOT want to get involved in the sudan. and by the way, jess bev, saying "i think sudanese people are [deleted] and hoes" is one of the most pointless, hateful, and biggoted things i have ever heard. grow up and open your eyes.
hey sam, hate to tell you this but EVERYTHING is run by money. If you don't like your money and you feel too guilty to hold on to it...I'll send you my paypal email address so you can send me some.
Why does this website charge money for a subscription...they are only there for money. why do Dems raise oodles and oodles of cash...shoot, John Kerry is sitting on a billion alone...not to mention how much money does Al and Tipper get from the carbon-kickbacks...what about kofi-annan...the oil for food sure did go away fast. I guess he paid Bush to have the war so our focus would not be on him when he got caught.
If you think that these folks..left or right are on your side...get real. It's all about the money. Look at the polution in China...the sound is deafening from the EU and UN about them cleaning it up yet good ol america...they need to sign on to Kyoto.
Quit the Double Standard folks...it's only Fair
It is most definitely true. I grew up in Chad, and I can believe every word in this article. This does not mean that it is necesarily all true. It is possible that the information is wrong, but I can see how everything he wrote could be true. It is a heart breaking situation.
As I was reading I noticed two main suggestions: 1. send more troops in, and 2. send more money in. I don't think either of those suggestions would work. The situation is caused by greed. The rebels and those causing the turmoil want to have the power for themselves. Sending more money into the region will do very little in the long run, and a good portion of it will never reach the people. More troops would bring a bit more stability, however, this too would do absolutely nothing for fixing the problem. What really needs to happen is that God would change their hearts, and they would learn to love each other as God commanded us through His Son. This is the only hope for true lasting change in Darfur.
Only a peace agreement, acompanied with aid and development projects, will bring end to the conflict. Place 26,000 UNAMID soldiers on the ground or 200,000; means nothing without an agreement. There are over twenty rebel factions competing for recognition (and future govt. posts..)which makes any attempt to reach an agreement (esp with empty promises from US politicians to intervene militarily) difficult if not impossible. To the "Fee Darfur" comment. Who said Darfurians wanted to secede?
First, the world--the US, but also Europe and the rest--have to live up to their commitments to provide logistic aid to the African Union peacekeeping mission. Had all of the churches and people who proclaim themselves "pro life" spend an eigth of the energy on the living in Darfur as they do on worrying about zygotes, the politicians in the various countries would've listened, the AU force would be in far better shape, and we wouldn't have the ramped up violence. Part of the problem is also the distractibility of all of us--how many of the writers here kept Darfur on their front burner during all of the last year--I know I didn't. That's why and how genocides happen in part--the world becomes a giant ADD case, and so do we all. So let's focus--write not only your congressperson but religious leaders.
Or just sit back and slag each other.
American soldiers? Yeah, they'd help! Probably better if they remained in the Middle East murdering civilians. The EU in conjunction with the AU has deployed troops to protect the refugee camps in Darfur until some sort of peace can be negotiated. As for "did u make this up. It seems unreal", read a bloody newspaper you cretin.
I wish they would send a few soldiers
their for more protection as all the blankets in the world are not stopping these poor people from the tragic live they have been forced to live. My prayers are with them, I cry whenever I hear about that country.
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