Sudan’s devastating sideshow war fails to register on world’s radar

By Beatrice Debut

TINE, on the Sudan-Chad border, Jan 29 (AFP) — A war that has been raging for nearly a year in western Sudan has practically escaped the international community’s notice, despite heavy civilian casualties and the flight of more than 100,000 people to neighbouring Chad.

Most of the world’s attention on Sudan is focussed on talks aimed at ending a much larger, older civil conflict in the south, between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

In the western Darfur region, where a rebellion erupted in February 2003 — two decades after the main war in the south broke out — “world leaders don’t see any urgency, as they do when there are 30,000 refugees gathered in the same place,” explained Nuria Serra, a coordinator with the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Back in September, before fighting intensified, estimates for the number of dead in the conflict ranged from 3,000 to 7,000.

According to the UN, some 600,000 people inside Darfur have been displaced. Often the makeshift camps they set up come under attack from militias backed by the government.

MSF is the only international aid agency providing medical facilities, including trauma surgery, for those who reach Chad to the thousands of refugees fleeing daily bombing raids on the Sudanese side of the border.

“There is no international mobilisation. It’s a scandal,” lamented Peter Casaer, also with MSF.

In all, there are less than 40 foreign aid workers in eastern Chad, according to Yvan Sturm, the regional operations manager for the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR.

“You don’t have big groups of refugees coming in one spot, which speaks more to the public, is more attractive for the press, being very visual for the media,” added UNCHR spokeswoman Helen Caux.

“People cross the border by small groups but the (overall) number is there, it’s significant,” she said.

In December, when some 30,000 Sudanese fled to Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries, the UNHCR spoke of the region’s “forgotten emergency.”

Conditions for rebels and aid workers alike are harsh. There is little in the way of food, water, shelter or power along the border, where those who fled the war are dotted along a 600 kilometre stretch.

There are no regular flights between Chad’s capital, Ndjamena, and the border. Planes sometimes fly to Abeche, the main town in eastern Chad, but only have room for five passengers.

To reach the border by road from Ndjamena takes a gruelling, bumpy, dusty two-and-a-half days. When rains come in June, the roads become impassable.

In late December, the World Food Programme launched an urgent appeal for 11 million dollars for Chad. As of last week, just 800,000 dollars had been pledged, by Switzerland.

The crisis “has the potential of a real disaster if the international community doesn’t assist,” warned Robbie Thomson, who works for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Other aid workers agreed.

“It’s going to get worse,” said Sturm.

“For the time being, local solidarity works well, but we are coming to a time when the Chadians are using up their food stocks,” he added.

Last week, Khartoum made a show of sending humanitarian supplies to Darfur, but it is not authorising aid workers to travel there.

There is widespread optimism that talks in Nairobi between Khartoum and southern-based rebels will result in a comprehensive peace accord very soon, ending Africa’s longest running civil war and opening the doors to millions of development and investment dollars.

The people of Darfur, meanwhile, are suffering in silence.