West Sudanese feel shut out by southern peace deal
By Nima Elbagir
ALTI, Sudan, May 30 (Reuters) – Among some of the million Sudanese displaced by fighting in the west of the country, a deal paving the way for peace in the south has bred anger rather than hope.
More than a year of fighting in the western Darfur region has caused what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, but last week’s accord cleared final hurdles to peace only in the south.
“We are not happy about peace in the south. We are killed in our houses like animals. Nowhere in Darfur is safe…Why should we be happy for the south?,” Idriss Hamid told Reuters on Saturday.
“We will be happy when they fix what is broken in Darfur. Nothing has changed for us with this signing,” he added.
Hamid is among many who have fled their homes to scrape a living in the brick quarries around the town of Alti, about 65 km (40 miles) east of Khartoum.
Around 4,000 people, mainly young men, live in makeshift dwellings among the pits and ovens. They are paid under two dollars for a 12-hour day.
Even this meagre income could stop when the rains arrive in coming weeks, making it near impossible to fire the ovens that bake the bricks. The rains will increase the risk of illness among the men from Darfur, who work in little more than shorts and threadbare t-shirts.
The fighting in poverty-stricken Darfur has pitted Arab militias and government troops against two rebel groups who draw their members largely from black African farming communities.
Wednesday’s accord was between the government and southern rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, setting out how to share power and manage disputed strategic areas to end Africa’s oldest conflict.
Some of the brick workers have been in Alti for a year and mainly men in their 20s and 30s arrive in a steady stream.
FEEDING FAMILIES
Ezzedin Abdalla, 21, has been making bricks in the quarries by the side of the Nile for six months.
“I came because the situation is bad…They burnt our houses and killed our fathers. We have nothing because of the war,” he said.
Villagers and rights groups accuse Khartoum of arming the Arab horse-mounted militia, called janjaweed, to loot and burn African villages and fight a proxy war against two rebel groups who demand a fairer share of power and resources.
The government denies the charge, calling the janjaweed outlaws.
Sudan’s government and Darfur’s rebel groups agreed on Friday to allow international observers to monitor a ceasefire, as reports emerged of a fresh aerial attack in west Sudan.
A witness present at the attack on the village of Tabit, about 40 km (25 miles) southwest of al-Fashir, the capital of Northern Darfur state, told Reuters on Saturday the death toll had risen to 17 after five of the wounded later died.
The brick workers, who have made temporary shelters from the unsold bricks that litter the area, say they came to the town to feed families uprooted from homes and farms by the fighting.
“We came looking for work. We left behind our families. How can we feed them by hiding with them in the camps,” said 19-year-old Essam Adam, who like the others only has a chance to rest from making bricks after Friday prayers.
Hamid says the situation is still desperate.
“Some of our women are naked. They have nothing with which to cover their shame, and we should be happy (for the south)?”