We can’t walk away from Darfur

Sudanese refugee with child. [AP]

CAFOD's Antony Mahoney visits partners providing a much-needed lifeline to people affected by the long-running crisis in Darfur

I took a UN helicopter flight to visit one of the field stations in Darfur operated by the CAFOD-supported ACT/Caritas programme.

Few settlements are marked on the maps of Darfur, but from the air a pattern of small villages emerges.

These are found close to a wadi with vegetable gardens or small fields of maize or groundnuts nearby.

It was only when the helicopter descended that I could see that the roofs and doors of the houses were missing, no donkeys or goats were tethered in the compounds, no children running about, and no sign of anyone going about their normal work.

These settlements were ruined – their people were expelled or killed, their animals stolen, their wells poisoned and livelihoods destroyed.

They had moved from the rural areas to camps for displaced persons on the edge of the large towns, where they could be reached more easily by the international relief operation.

Normality is skin-deep

There is an appearance of normality when you reach Zalingei, a small town on a main road from Darfur to the Chadian border, where CAFOD is working in four camps for displaced people.

But you hardly need to scratch the surface to discover how deeply people are affected by the conflict.

After living for years in a powerless situation, there are signs that people have exhausted their capacity to cope with hardship.

The pressure of living in camps has exacerbated negative behaviour. Alcohol production is used as a form of income generation, but its consumption has become a coping mechanism.

There is an alarming increase in criminality ranging from extortion to banditry on the roads, and theft.

Traditional exchanges of agricultural produce such as sorghum and millet for meat has almost stopped because people can no longer travel to markets because of the lack of security.

People have little chance of sustaining their livelihood. Getting services such as health, water, sanitation, and education may induce them to stay where they are rather than return home.

The Sheiks expect to maintain their authority whilst in the camps, but the disaffected youths are beginning to organise themselves and their status has been put under great strain.

Young men often have no positive role model in the form of a father figure to set their boundaries and they are unduly influenced by their peers.

People are weary and frustrated, increasingly politicised and vocal.

Women assert themselves

I met one group of women in Khamsadageig Camp, who articulated their concerns in a way that impressed me.

They told me how they were taking literacy and numeracy classes provided by our programme and enhancing their skills. But they refuse to venture from the camps to forage for firewood because of fears of being attacked.

I found their complex analysis of the ongoing peace process, and the pressure to move people back home, showed a level of political awareness I had not encountered before - a sign of how women now feel able to assert themselves.

Darfur is now one of Africa’s long-running humanitarian crises, such as those in the Congo or Zimbabwe, where we are providing an essential lifeline to the people despite apparently intractable obstacles which prevent us reaching closure.

"Leave the bones and catch the land" is a Sudanese saying that means one should abandon painful memories of loss, and dedicate oneself to life and renewal.

Our hope must be that the efforts of so many people of goodwill to establish a just peace in Darfur and the rest of Sudan will begin to reach fruition.

This article was first published in The Catholic Times in November 2007