Heading Home

It has been a good year for me, but it is time to return home and hopefully start my PhD next summer. I have lots more to say but I will wait until I have access to a faster connection sometime this weekend.

The short story is that I will be going on vacation in Europe for a month and then returning to Sudan for my final week in country before returning to my beloved Indiana.

Talk to you all in a few days.

Ceasefire declared amidst continued fighting

Some of you may have seen the headlines that come at the end of a highly publicized effort in Khartoum to give the world the impression that a new peace initiative is under way in Sudan to bring an end to the war in Darfur. The rhetoric has been that the international community needs to steer clear of the internal affairs of Sudan and let the Sudanese people handle their own affairs. This statement is directly particularly at the International Criminal Court and perhaps to some degree at the peacekeeping operation here in Darfur which has the object of a number of attacks in the last month.

At the closure of the conference, the president of Sudan acted on some of the recommendations of the participants by declaring an immediate ceasefire and suggesting that the courts would consider compensation to families that had been affected by the conflict. This statement addressed the two most important demands of the rebels BEFORE any peace negotiations can resume.

The news on the ceasefire was treated with some mistrust and scepticism, and with reason. Yesterday and today, I learned that the Sudanese military launched a major assault in North Darfur on a number of positions. You can read more about the ceasefire declaration and the related rhetoric here: 'Sudan People's Initiative' Calls for Ceasefire; President Declares it Immediately and Unconditionally. The source of this article is the "Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan."

Many people have expressed scepticism about the sincerity of this declaration, and these articles provide a good overview of that position: Sudan cease-fire call gets wary reception in Darfur and France says not swayed by Sudan ceasefire call

Mind you, none of the articles mention the fact that there is still fighting taking place in Darfur. That may be the key reason not to trust the immediate and unconditional declaration of a cessation of hostilities.

Here are the most recent reports of fighting. I have added explanations of site-specific references or abbreviations in parenthesis:

YESTERDAY, NOV 13

Reports of from Korma (North Darfur) that GoS (Government of Sudan), with 60 technicals (pick up trucks with mounted machine guns), 2 Antonov (bomber planes) and two gunships (attach helicopters), has attacked SLA(AW) (rebel group led by Abdul Wahid)positions /checkpoints west of Khazan Tungur (southern area of North Darfur), which were established on the access roads to Jebel Mara (area in Southwest North Darfur but also in West and North Darfur). Reported casualties : five (5) persons killed and four (4) wounded. No Further Info (NFI)

TODAY AT 1100 HOURS

Aerial bombing by GoS Antonov in the vicinity of KURBIA. ( KURBIA located N NW of KUTUM on the main road between ABDEL SHAKUR and ANA BAGI). Exact time unknown. Report of casualties and battle damage unknown. In KUTUM two GoS Heli gunships are prepared and on standby to conduct mission. No Further Info (NFI).

Yes, it is normal for ceasefires to be violated. Foot soldiers receive orders late and accidents can happen. But it is difficult to see how the launching of a new assault in an area that has not seen active fighting in recent weeks can be explained in those terms.

What provoked this attack? Why now? Difficult to say, but I have the feeling that we will all learn more soon. It is entirely possible that the rebel groups were mobilizing and that it prompted a government retaliation attack to keep them in check. Either way, this new assault needs to be explained quickly if the president hopes that his ceasefire declaration will retain any credibility in Darfur and with the international community.

Journey to Kass

One of the roots of the crisis is the Sudanese government’s longstanding neglect of the region. Schools in Darfur are few and far between, and where they do exist they have traditionally been understaffed and under-funded. Darfur is the exception to the rule about conflicts and education, for today there are more children in school than before the conflict. Communities have opened their doors and generously shared their meager resources to enabled children to attend school and obtain provisions . More children, and especially girls, are in school because their families have lost their land and animals, leaving children with less work to do.

I recently traveled to Kass. Sudan is divided into states and states are divided into localities. Kass locality is one of the nine localities in South Darfur State. It is situated 150 km westof Nyala. It has three administrative units, namely: Kass, Janub El Jabel and Shateya.

Kass town is the capital of the state and the estimated resident population is about 33,000 inhabitants.

In 2003, the conflict has produced a large influx of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to Kass town, which increased in number each day until the estimated number of IDPs in Kass town had reached around 27,000 in September 2004 and were allocated different places within the city. Most were integrated in the schools. Today, the numbers have crested at approximately55,000 displaced people. Most of them are crowded into makeshift shelters in the compounds of public buildings such as schools. There are 13 camps located throughout Kass town, each named after the school whose property they occupy. Some of the displaced people are staying with relatives in dusty front yards and crowded houses.

The schools remained closed for two years since the displaced occupied the classrooms themselves, but in 2004, residents in Kass pushed to get the schools to reopen. International NGOs such as Oxfam, IRC, and others provided plastic sheeting to allow IDPs to move out of the school buildings and into the courtyards. Today, the schools are a veritable tent city as you can see in these pictures. Instead of school yards, you have hundreds of shelters. The entrance to the girls secondary school is lined with IDP housing. After five years of waiting to return to their homes, many IDPs had begun to build permanent settlements in the schools. So now, between one classroom and another, you have to walk through a maze of brick walls and shelters, wandering children, donkeys, and if you are particularly unlucky, an angry Sheikh asking about what the school is going to do to improve living conditions for the families on the school grounds.

Kass is historically located deep in Fur territory. Traditionally, Fur would farm the land in this area and allow Arab tribes in the area to graze their cattle on the stubs of the harvested crops. The drought in the 1980s put a strain on this mutually beneficial arrangement and Fur began to deny Arabs access to certain seasonal migration routes in the name of preserving slow growing crops. Many Arab families suffered and there was reportedly widespread starvation among nomadic tribes in the area who had come to depend on this livelihood arrangement. The bitterness that emerged combine with government neglect and manipulation of loyalties led to open warfare that took its toll on all people living in this area - Arab and non Arab.

On the social side of things, everyone is more cautious than I have found when visiting villages in North Darfur. The kids were more skittish but never failed to belt out the common refrain "okay, okay" and give me the thumbs up. I am not sure they know what Okay means. My guess is that they think that it is a greeting. I am sure that they have heard foreigners use the word often enough to know that it is English. These kids made me realize just how much I use "okay" everytime I talk with my staff. Have to tried to reduce that and substitute it with a convenient Arab phrase with the same meaning. Tamam is what lots of people use. Or Tayeeb. Both mean 'good'.

I liked Kass alot. Nice air, lots of trees and overall friendly market, but it is difficult to imagine the situation improving for the residents of this town anytime soon. The most disturbing thing that struck me was the number of latrines (outdoor toilets) that lined the streets and the school yards. Latrines are like the port-o-potties you would find at a public event in the states, but these are made from plastic sheeting for privacy and the waste drops into a shallow (9 foot) hole dug into the ground with a cement platform placed on top. The holes fill up quickly and new holes have to be dug. With the sandy soil, there is little doubt that the ground water is being affected by such a density of human waste in such a small area. UN agencies have discussed the potential of creating another even greater disaster - the contamination of the only available water for miles - as a result of all the humanitarian assistance focused in one restricted area.

Towns are safer than villages and that is the reason most villagers give for refusing to relocate outside the center of town, but unless some solution is found soon, we run the risk of triggering another conflict in Darfur - this one over access to the remaing, clean aquafers in Darfur. Ethnic and politically motivated wars are survivable. A water war would be cataclysmic. Fortunately there are a few solutions being batted around and our organization also has a few ideas that it will attempt to implement over the next two months including the conversion of human waste to natural cooking gas - or biogas. The idea may be difficult to sell. I will keep you all appraised of the progress. Below you can see a picture of the biolatrine concept. Talk with you again soon.

Narration via pictures -- Mellit and a smattering of Kutum

No room for a library. All the books stacked in the headmaster's office

Hell of a way to go to High School!

Nature of Mellit!