use any of the roads outside Geneina [the capital of west Darfur]. People cannot move and that means they can’t get to any of the camps in west Darfur.” […]
The latest UN report from Darfur paints a grim picture of daily killings and the forced removal of villagers from their homes. The report – which covers just four days in Darfur – notes the discovery of the bodies of two AU peacekeepers, killed in the ambush near Menawashi; an attack on the town of Liria in which 18 people died, 11 of them women; a fight over grazing rights in which an unknown number of people died and 100 families from Wandi were forced from their homes; the ambush of a truck on the near Tore in which four people died; the shooting dead by seven armed bandits of two passengers in a commercial vehicle and theft of six million Sudanese dinar; and the burning of the market in Kafod in which one person was killed and an aid agency forced to relocate its team.
Aid agencies say that without security in the region, they are powerless to help those most in need. Oxfam operates in 16 camps in Darfur but is currently unable to reach five because it is too dangerous to use the roads.
A spokeswoman for Oxfam said clashes between Sudanese government forces and rebels were hampering aid efforts.
Oxfam can’t reach five of its camps? So what will be the fate of the wretched camp inmates, at the mercy of Sudanese forces, and with no aid? Is the genocide stepping up a gear?
It’s telling that the Oxfam spokeswoman talks of “clashes between Sudanese government forces and rebels” which are “hampering aid efforts”. Of course we don’t know how effective the rebel forces are, but clearly it’s very much in the interests of the Sudanese government to present the situation as a civil war, with their forces trying to restore order in the face of rebel action, rather than a government-backed campaign of genocide against the black population of Darfur. It sounds like the government is calling all the shots, and the aid agencies are being intimidated into playing along.
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