Ceasefire means little to displaced in Western Sudan
By Nima Elbagir
SISSI, Sudan, April 20 (Reuters) – A ceasefire in the vast Darfur region of western Sudan means little to the people at Sissi camp, where displaced villagers said on Tuesday they face daily harassment and threats from Arab militiamen.
More than 4,000 people have taken refuge in the hilly scrubland at Sissi but armed militiamen on camels have ringed the camp, picking off women who go out to forage and challenging their menfolk to come out and fight, the residents said.
The militias, known as Janjaweed, remain on the offensive in the region — on the road from Sissi to the state capital Geneina on Tuesday they set fire to huts in one settlement, driving the local people into one of the larger buildings.
The camp offers minimal security to some of the estimated 700,000 people displaced in Darfur by 14 months of conflict between government forces and Darfur rebels, in parallel with a longer struggle between Arabs and Africans over land and water.
The United Nations has described it as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, despite the ceasefire agreed in the Chadian capital N’Djamena 12 days ago.
“The ceasefire is just talk. These people (the Janjaweed) respect nothing and no one can take their guns,” said Abbaker Mursal, 51, the head of the displaced people’s committee.
Mursal drew a circle in the sand to show the camp itself, then another ring around it. “This is the Janjaweed circle that imprisons us… If they catch you on the outskirts of the camp, they will kill you,” he told Reuters.
Mariam Mohammad Ishaq, 40, told how Janjaweed militiamen broke her leg on Monday when she went out to collect grass for her donkey.
“The Janjaweed caught me. They asked ‘Where are your men, why are they hiding behind women? Let them come so we can kill them’.” Ishaq was lying on a grass mat, nursing her swollen leg.
Hawa Adam said she and a group of women had a similar experience two days ago. “They pointed a gun in my face and said ‘Where are your men?’ We said we don’t know so they beat us and used (raped) one of the women and said that from now on the women should not go outside the camp,” she said.
The harassment poses a dilemma for the men in the camp, who need the grass and firewood but dare not collect it themselves.
“We don’t know what to do. It burns us but we know if we go out they will kill us. We know they want to provoke us into coming out,” said Mohammed Adam, a 35-year-old displaced person.
Khamis, another man, said the residents of the camp wanted to move somewhere safer but in the chaotic conditions of Darfur it is unlikely they will find protection soon.
A Swiss non-governmental organisation has a clinic in the camp, 45 km (30 miles) southeast of Geneina, and the U.N. Chidren’s Fund UNICEF has set up some hand pumps at wells.
The camp grew up around a small Sudanese government military checkpoint, which is unable to provide security.