Troubled horizon

Darfur is a place of many seasons all in the same day. In one direction, life seems to be almost normal, serene, downright boring. But on another horizon we feel a storm coming. In El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. we hear lots of rumors that the rebels, who have been losing the battle to maintain their bases in the northern desert, have decided to take the fight to the government troops based in Fasher. The town is very jittery but the market has remained open every day without fail, suggesting that the rumors are just that. When businessmen shut their doors, then I get nervous, not before.

Today 50 heavily armed vehicles arrived in Fasher from Khartoum, presumably on their way to new front lines north and west of the city. Mellit and Kebkabiya have seen fortified battle lines forming just outside of their city limits. But fighting seems to have stopped in the areas that saw heavy bombardments and fighting over the past few weeks.

The vice president and head of one faction met early this week and allegedly signed an agreement to stop fighting one another. Hard to say what is true or just conjecture since no public announcement was ever made, but I feel confident enough to head back to Fasher the day after tomorrow for a rediscovery of my bed and abode.

It has been 28 days since I have had a chance to sleep in my own bed and use my own kitchen. I look so forward to celebrating the Ed Ramadan in peace in my own place. Okay, maybe the word ‘peace’ is not appropriate in the given circumstances, but being in one’s own surroundings with one’s own stuff does bring on a hint of inner peace. Talk about a false sense of security!

The downside of being in Fasher is that the internet has not been functioning there since the fighting started over a month ago, so I will most likely be in contact with family and friends via telephone and not the internet. That also means no internet update for a few solid weeks unless I can bum a few minutes of online time with the NGOs that have a Vsat connection.

Here is an idea of the situation reports we used to receive once a day but now appear to come in updates during the course of the day as needed:

UPDATED INFO RECEIVED AT 1600 HOURS: Today at 1230 hours ,a vehicle convoy composed of approx 50 vehicles ( composed of pick up trucks , with machine-guns mounted and one heavy lift truck) , arrived in El Fasher from Khartoum. Each vehicle had approx 6-8 GoS soldiers on it.

UPDATED INFO AS AT 1700 HOURS: Vicinity KAGURO "As regards KABKABIYA (North of Kaguro) be informed that there are increased GOS Military, Janjaweed (and Jundi Mazloum) activities demonstrating typical indications of new build of Janjaweed in the area. Such indications include massive theft of domestic animals like goats, sheep, horses and others (replenishment or preparations for field mission) which at times has involved shooting of the owners of such animals if they resist the theft . One was yesterday involving the theft of goats and firing of a woman in the leg."

Also: From the SLA HAC Commissioner that there is a significant build-up of government-backed militia (he did not detail a location where the build-up is occurring) and advised OCHA that no-one (presumably meaning UN and INGOs) should not leave El Fasher for a "few days"! It was not specified in this advice but we have already had reports of a build-up of troops in Kabkabiya and Mellit-Malha so this may be the locations where the SLA HAC Commissioner is referring to.