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FROM THE FIELD

Sleeping tight in Darfur
20 Aug 2009 10:56:00 GMT
 Source: DanChurchAid - Denmark
Lisa Henry

Website: Website: http://www.danchurchaid.org/sider_paa_hjemmesiden/where_we_work/africa/sudan/read_more/sleeping_tight_in_darfur

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Fiza Ahmad Ibrahim Mohammad fled from the Janjaweed. Now she and her baby girl are safe in Derieg camp for internal displaced people.
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Fiza Ahmad Ibrahim Mohammad fled from the Janjaweed. Now she and her baby girl are safe in Derieg camp for internal displaced people.
Lisa Henry
Derieg camp was and is Fiza's safe haven since she fled with her family from the Janjaweed 5 years ago.

The noise and clutter of the 22.000 IDPs here is nothing compared to the fear of attack, rape or death. Here she can earn money as a tailor, drink tea in the afternoon with her friends at the women's community center and sleep safe.

Fiza Ahmad Ibrahim Mohammed sits with her baby Omnia Ahmad Sidig in her lap, alternating between bouncing the sweating baby girl and letting her suckle on a slim flap of a breast. Fiza's smile quietly lights up her face as she talks about the 10 month training course run by SudanAid (a partner in the Action By Churches Together Alliance (ACT) supported by DanChurchAid ), she is about to finish.

She will be a tailor then, able to earn some money or at the least able to repair for free clothes for herself, her 5 kids and her husband. At 28 she is a proud woman. And why shouldn't she be? 5 years ago she fled with her family from the Janjaweed, young men who came on horseback, by camel and on foot to kill her and her family.

A safe haven for 22.000 displaced They all escaped by night but her younger brother was killed. The Janjaweed held his corpse hostage. For three days the family tried to get the body back. They wanted to bury him properly. Finally, they got his body and buried him, on the run from the killers. The horror of that night lurks behind Fiza's smile.

Derieg camp was and is Fiza's safe haven. The noise and clutter of the 22.000 IDPs (internal displaced people) here is nothing compared to the fear of attack, rape or death. Here she can earn money as a tailor, drink tea in the afternoon with her friends at the women's community center and sleep safe. Here Fiza can send her 2 of her 5 kids to a primary school for girls. The school is solidly built in cement blocks painted deep red. A fence surrounds the school, with the girls entering through a front gate. The sign proclaiming support from SudanAid is clearly lettered and painted to last through sand storms and the harsh rays of the relentless sun. The school is also a safe haven.

Pushing on a "return" agenda But how long can she go on living as an internally displaced person, far from her home village and own farmland? With the upcoming elections in Sudan in 2010, the government knows that camps full of frustrated and fearful families are not good campaign slogans. Therefore, the government is now pushing a "return" agenda, leaking rumors of model villages and unverifiable numbers of people already returned home.

There is nothing Fiza would rather do than return home. But she won't return home at any cost. She won't pay the price of subjecting her family to the possibility of violent attack by armed men on camel back, or a future without school and income. Fiza asks me quite directly if the government can control the Janjaweed? But my answer and any answer at this time is inadequate and unconvincing. There is no evidence that the Sudanese military or the UNAMID (African Union forces deployed to maintain peace) can control the armed raiders.

They have ruled the Darfur countryside with impunity since 2004 and they seem to be able to continue. So I take leave of Fiza who is appreciative of the help she has received. Her tailoring business should soon take off, her two girls will stick in school and she will make do in the crowded conditions of Dereig camp. For now she is sleeping safe.


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Background information

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Last updated:Thu Aug 20 11:43:06 2009