“Before the peace agreement, we had protection from the SLA, but now there is no protection. The SLA is still outside the camp, but they are fighting among themselves because some signed the peace agreement and others refuse it,” says one young man, now an IDP in El Neem camp.
“On the radio, they say, ‘Peace is coming, peace is coming,’ but here on the ground there is no peace,” says one girl, named Asha. A friend of hers adds, “I cannot even hear about peace on the radio. I have no radio. I have nothing. We lost everything when our villages were attacked.”
At the end of August, a splinter group that supports the peace agreement, known as SLA Freewill, attacked two villages north of El Daein, Abou Hadid and El Baraka. El Baraka was attacked twice, leaving more than 10 people dead. The same group is suspected of having attacked a Sudanese army barracks in Songo, 200 kilometers away.
Many men have left El Neem to return to their villages and farm while the rains are falling now during the wet season. They say they cannot permanently leave the camp with their families because of the ongoing conflict.
“We do not wish to be victims of fighting between these groups,” says one sheikh. “We are staying in the camps to protect ourselves,” says another sheikh, Abdul.
“At the moment the SLA is still in the field, the government is still there, the militias are there, and the weapons are still there,” he says.
El Neem camp, where ACT-Caritas is working through local partners to rovide the community with water, food, education and a community centre, is not secure.
“If we go outside the camp to collect firewood, we can be attacked. And recently armed men have even come into the camp and stolen things,” one woman says.
The peace agreement includes provisions for disarmament, but that has not happened yet. And it is unclear under the current circumstances how that can be enforced.
For some, the trauma of war is such that they do not want to leave the relative safety of the camp. “I don’t want to return,” says Malka. “I am afraid. I want to stay here.”
For others, like Fatima, the equation is simple: “If there is security I will go. If there is no security, I will stay.”
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is participating in the Darfur response as a member of an international alliance of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox aid organizations from the United States, Europe, and Sudan — ACT-Caritas. During 2006, PDA has committed a quarter of a million dollars of funds to the humanitarian response in Darfur.
A prayer for Darfur is available, written by Archbishop Desmond Tutu for the September 17, 2006 Global Day for Darfur. |
