Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur Grows

By Jessica Manier

Op-Ed Editor

Over the past 20 years, the conflict in Darfur has moved from the north and south to the west. Humanitarian efforts have failed to stem the crisis, which has so far resulted in an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 casualties. The Sudanese government has slowly and systematically stopped humanitarian aid from reaching the people in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps and the refugee camps along the Sudan-Chad border.

More than 2,000 villages have been destroyed. Millions of civilians have been forced to flee to refugee camps within Darfur and in the neighboring country of Chad where it is difficult to lead a sustainable life. Innocent men, women, and children have died in Darfur and are going to continue to die if the government of Sudan is not stopped from systematically killing its very own people.

The Hutus and the Tutsis killed an estimated 800,000 to 1,071,000 innocent civilians in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. A genocide that was said to be “never again” is occurring right before our eyes.

Nearly two million people have been displaced and are now searching for refugee camps in Darfur and Chad. Men fled first because they knew they were more likely to be killed if they resisted. If the women resisted they would be raped. According to Aisha Bain, producer of the documentary "Darfur Diaries: A Message From Home," rape has become a significant problem and will continue to be one when these people attempt to rebuild in their native villages. Women will still suffer repercussions from their ordeals because they will be stigmatized for the rest of their lives, particularly if there has been offspring as a result of the rape.

Jerry Fowler, staff director at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Committee on Conscience traveled to the refugee camps in Chad and Darfur and encountered many resilient people. Some of the people he had met were not yet in camps and were literally living under trees. A woman who had just crossed over to Chad with 60 other refugees had two bullet wounds, one just below the knee and one under her right foot. She was shot when she and a 17 year old girl went to a well to try and get water for themselves and the rest of the refugees they were fleeing with. There was a Sudanese soldier guarding the well. “It’s one thing to drive people from their homes and into the desert but it is another thing to guard the wells so they can’t get water to help sustain themselves,” said Fowler.

The refugee camps are set up so civilians from Darfur are able to flee the harsh conditions of their country and go to a place where for some time they may be safe. In addition, these camps provide civilians with basic food, shelter and water. Many of the camps for internally displaced persons and refugees are becoming so over-crowded it is very difficult for the civilians living there to get water from wells and enough food to support their families.

“There are of course many children in the camps. Like children everywhere, they’re living in the moment, they’re playing, they’re smiling, they’re laughing,” said Fowler. “Other children though, show the effects of the burdens they are bearing. Some seem to be traumatized, but the question I kept asking myself was what future do these children have?”
Bain traveled to Darfur in October of 2004 to film a documentary that would let the voices of the Darfurian people be heard in a time of tremendous hardship. Throughout the documentary Bain and her colleagues traveled the arid desert with relentless winds to try and capture the essence of the Darfurian people. “It was about these people’s strength and their resilience, and their courage and their dignity which our media really fails to capture and humanize the other,” said Bain.

“The refugee camps in Chad are obviously in better condition than those in Darfur,” said Bain. “It’s pretty hard, if I compare it to what’s happening in Darfur I think it’s great. But if I compare it to human living standards, that area of Chad is the same as Darfur. It’s barren desert and so there is no shelter, nothing to stop the wind, its total hell. It’s pure desert, the wind blows like you would not believe, the sand got in our noses, eyes, our hair, all of our equipment, it blows like that all of the time.”

In Chad, humanitarian workers have the ability to move people to different camps to get aid and food. In Darfur, they are unable to do so because there are hundreds of thousands of people trying to get access to a scarce amount of supplies and it is hard to move all of the people to different camps. The aid workers in these camps are under attack from militia groups riding around the camps on their horses. Aid workers have been raped, beaten, and even killed.

“The Darfurians are in the middle of a storm and it is very difficult to see what the future will bring,” said Brian Steidle, a former marine and photographer in Darfur. “What will happen depends on the choices that are made on the ground in Darfur, choices that are made in Khartoum the capital of Sudan, but also choices that are made in Washington and by citizens in the United States.”

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