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Civilians in Darfur, Sudan: "We need protection"
A young girl sits amid her family's possessions after they fled attacks by armed militias in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Photo: Gillian Sandford, ACT-Caritas
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By Malene Haakansson, ACT*-Caritas
Over the last month, some 4,000 families have fled to Nyala in South Darfur to escape the fighting between militia and rebel groups in Gereida and militia attacks on villages around Buram, an area that lies south of Nyala. They have sought refuge in overcrowded camps surrounding the town. For many of the people displaced by the conflict, Nyala seems their safest option for now.
Hundreds of families have found temporary shelter in the schools in Dereige camp on the outskirts of Nyala, South Darfur. Crammed into classrooms, women, children, and men sleep together on the hard, sandy floor. Their meager belongings are piled up in the corners. They need as much floor space as possible, while the women prepare food in the middle of the crowd, their children close by.
"We need protection. That is why we fled to Nyala," says a leader from the newly displaced group.
The reports from the newly displaced groups are horrific. They say that their villages were attacked several times. That the men were killed and the women raped.
A young woman from the Buram area (Her name is being withheld for her protection.) tells how her village was attacked three times by militia groups, forcing the villagers to flee to the surrounding bush every time. And every time, people were forced to return to what was left of their homes because they desperately needed water.
She says that during the last attack she told her children to run, while she escaped with the family's horse, her youngest child on her back.
"One of the militia men followed me. Another one said that he should shoot me, but then said he would not do it because I am a woman. He only took my horse," she recounts.
"I was so scared." Her fear still evident-not only in her voice, but in her whole body language, in the way her hands slice through the air to underscore her words. "I thought I would die and that there was no way to escape."
She ended up walking for five days along with 24 other families to a town where they managed to get a ride on a bus to Nyala. The children took the donkeys.
But, still they were not safe.
While on the bus, they were once again attacked. People were killed and the bus looted, explain some of her fellow travelers who also eventually made it to safety.
"I am trying to cope with our new situation, but it is difficult. I still miss the ones that were killed," the woman says. She alone lost eight relatives during the attacks. Two of them were her brothers.
Added to the difficulties of having to cope, are the extra responsibilities that come with having some relatives who have lost the men in their households, now depending on her family. "Before, they were rich. They had cattle. Now everything has been taken," she says.
The newly displaced group of people from the Buram area has raised concern within the humanitarian community responding in Darfur, as Buram is unknown to them. Nonon-governmental organization (NGO)is working in the area, and no African Union patrols are scheduled for the area either. Now, the reports have alerted the humanitarian agencies to another crisis situation in the vast province of Darfur, which is about the size of France.
According to the new arrivals, they have been living in fear for at least three years now, paying for "protection". In spite of this, they have had to endure the looting, losing their possessions and their cattle. "We could not fight against the militia. They would kill us," explains a sheikh.
The families from this remote part of the province were unaware of the Darfur Peace Agreement, but did not put much trust in it when they were told about the talks and the recent developments around the agreement.
"When families arrive in the camp telling stories about people being killed and wounded, it must mean that this peace agreement does not mean anything," remarks an older man. The sheikhs say that the only ones that can protect them are the NGOs and the United Nations.
The humanitarian agencies responding to this deeply complex and ongoing emergency are working with the local authorities to find a place where the many new arrivals will be sheltered. In Dereige Camp, SudanAid, a local partner implementing programs on behalf of the ACT-Caritas Darfur Operation, is assessing the group's basic needs, and will facilitate and co-ordinate the distribution of non-food items, such as plastic sheeting, provided by ACT-Caritas. Other agencies will provide shelter material.
"Our main concern now is to get the IDPs (internally displaced persons) out of the school so the children in the camp can go back to school," says Thomas Sokiri, SudanAid's co-ordinator for protection, peace building, and psychosocial care.
About 2,100 children attend the school in Dereige Camp, which is host to some 20,000 people at the moment. The school has been closed because of holidays, but is supposed to re-open in two weeks' time.
*Church World Service, as part of the Action by Churches Together, ACT, coalition, is helping to meeting the humanitarian needs of families and communities uprooted by the violence in Darfur. In partnership, CWS is helping to provide food, medicines, water and sanitation, agricultural inputs and tools, as well as a supplemental feeding program for malnourished children.
Contributions to CWS Sudan-Darfur emergency efforts may be made online, by phone to 800-297-1516 ext. 222, or mailed to CWS, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515. Thank you.
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;
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