Darfur Violence Driving Out Help; Some Remain
WASHINGTON – At a time when it would be hard to imagine a more deteriorated Darfur – the situation has indeed worsened, forcing many relief groups and individuals to finally relent and flee the human-caused wasteland.
“It is unbelievable for any human being to imagine that the entire Darfur right now is unsafe even in the cities,” said Motasim Adam, a Darfurian refugee residing in the United States and president of the Darfur People’s Association of New York, to The Christian Post.
“Forget about the camps. One week ago they were safe because the human rights organizations and humanitarian organizations. Now, everything is screwed up,” he added.
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Darfur, which is comparable in size to Texas or France, is one of the largest regions in Sudan. According to Darfurian refugees at this past weekend’s Darfur rally in Washington, the Arab militia janjaweed has begun attacking the three large Darfurian cities – El Fashir, Nyala, and Elgeniena – since Dec. 3 where most of the humanitarian and refugee camps are located.
Mission Aviation Fellowship, although it does not have a base in Sudan, has reported that it is helping to evacuate some of the Christian workers in south Sudan because of the escalation in violence.
“The military clash has escalated to the point where it’s been dangerous for civilians and dangerous for foreign workers as well,” said MAF president Kevin Swanson to Mission Network News on Monday. “Some of the people that we serve there – that depend on MAF for their transportation services – have made the decision to evacuate.”
Caritas Internationalis media officer Nancy McNally recently visited Sudan in early November and had spent over a week in Darfur. She noted that the violence has forced some humanitarian groups to leave the region due to insecurity threats.
However, the NGO (non-governmental organization) workers that remain are taking extra precautions to preserve their ability to stay in Darfur.
“[What struck me] is the amount of things that everyone (NGO workers) on the ground know are going on but are not allowed and don’t want to speak out about,” said McNally on Wednesday from the Caritas headquarter in Vatican City. “They are caught in a difficult position where their main priority is helping people and the survival of their operation is important to the people they are helping,” she explained.
McNally noted that the NGO workers have to maintain a fine balance between silence to appease the Sudanese government and remain in Darfur while informing the world of the desperate situation in the region.
“The government isn’t going to blatantly come in and wipe out a whole bunch of people so long as there are a lot of witnesses,” added McNally. “Once you don’t have witnesses then you don’t know what will happen.”
Besides Caritas, World Vision confirmed on Tuesday that they are still working in Darfur despite the heightened dangers, although they could not provide updates on the situation.
Caritas, an Action by Churches Together member, is working with local partners Sudan Council of Churches, Sudo (Sudan Social Development Organization), and SudanAid in Darfur.
“Now they (janjaweed militia) burn all the villages in Darfur. There is no single village left in Darfur,” lamented the Darfurian refugee Motasim Adam. “They burn the entire rural area of Darfur…there is no village left to burn so they come into the cities and begin horrifying the people, raping women, confiscating money, shooting them on the streets…Now as I’m talking to you, there is no safe any place in Darfur.”
As example, Motasim Adam said that his cousin was shot by a janjaweed militiaman on Saturday night in front of his store.
“I don’t know what the international community can do to save the life of the people of Darfur.”
