Zachary Ochieng
9 October 2007
Nairobi — The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says up to 160,000 people have been displaced in Darfur since the beginning of the year, putting the total number of displaced at 2.2 million and those receiving relief aid at 4.2 million, nearly two-thirds of the region's population.
OCHA says many of Darfur's internally displaced persons (IDP) camps can no longer absorb new arrivals.
The humanitarian crisis unfolds as the international community stands by undecided. Beyond direct attacks over civilians, the confused nature of the recent hostilities - with inter-tribal fighting and groups switching sides - has contributed to the displacement of civilians.
Yet in July and August, government officials told international agency staffers based in Darfur that the region's internal refugees were beginning to return home and the international community should co-operate.
But what the government described as "voluntary returns" were in fact only brief excursions out of the camps on market days or during the farming season. Few displaced persons left the camps for more than a few days and even fewer returned permanently to their villages.
One person working with displaced people in Darfur described the government's discussion of voluntary return as "smoke and mirrors."
Another noted that last year the government tried to convince the relief community that its assistance to the camps was not needed because people were ready to go home.
"Women want to go home, but can't," she told Human Rights Watch. "They sit in the camps and sing songs about their villages and draw pictures of their crops and flowers."
Sexual violence continues unabated. Members of militia forces regularly perpetrate crimes of sexual violence against women and girls engaged in various activities, such as farming or collecting firewood, grass, or fetching water.
Market days are especially dangerous: Armed men will intercept people going to buy or sell goods. Attackers are often dressed in a variety of military uniforms and travel in small groups of men on horses and camels. They revile women and girls because of their African ethnicity, calling them "slaves" and Tora bora - meaning rebel - as they beat them with whips, gun butts, or fists.
Victims of these abuses have been told to get off the land and stop collecting wood. Fighters from the SLA/Minawi former rebel group are also implicated in sexual violence, especially in the area of Tawila and Korma in North Darfur in 2007. Women and girls are often targeted because of their ethnicity and accused of supporting the SLA/Abdul Wahid rebel faction.
Government soldiers and other state actors have also committed acts of sexual violence both in large attacks against entire populations, as was the case in Dereibat, and in small attacks against women and girls inside and outside camps and villages.
The issue of sexual violence remains shrouded in silence. Social stigmatisation prevents many victims from telling relatives, doctors, or police what has happened to them.
Some government officials deny that rape is a serious problem in Darfur, and humanitarian aid workers are afraid of jeopardising their work if they speak out about the issue. This allows the police to ignore victims or seek to punish them by countering their claims with charges of adultery.
Other government officials, however, have openly recognised the problem of sexual violence in the conflict. When a group of human-rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council requested information about what steps the government had taken to address it, they were given a list of public events and workshops that had taken place, and told of the enactment of Criminal Circular No. 2 in 2004.
The law allowed victims of sexual violence to, among other things, receive medical treatment without first reporting to the police.
The government also provided information on the number of female police in Darfur and indicated that it would be increasing their numbers. But these measures have yet to improve the situation for women and girls in Darfur.
Perpetrators are rarely brought to justice and many of the mechanisms the state has established to combat sexual violence, such as the State Committees on Combating Gender-based Violence, function poorly and have had little impact.
Although women and girls are the ones primarily collecting firewood and hay, militiamen also target men and boys who farm, travel to markets, or leave their villages or camps for other reasons.
The victims are often accused of being rebels and have been shot, robbed, harassed and beaten. Men and boys from non-Arab communities have also come to fear being subjected to extortion, beatings, and arbitrary arrests when they have to pass through formal and informal checkpoints manned by government security forces that are located outside villages and camps.
Many Darfurians face violence inside camps and villages as part of everyday life as well. Each camp has its own dynamics, some being relatively calm while in others there is a considerable rebel or Janjaweed presence.
Nighttime gunfire is regularly heard in many camps, and even when no casualties result, it instills fear among the populace. Armed Janjaweed come and go from many of the camps, especially on market days.
There have been numerous cases of robbery, murder, sexual violence, and harassment inside the camps, often perpetrated by Janjaweed, but also by rebels and former rebels, and displaced persons themselves.
Government soldiers often act as thugs and harass and beat people in towns and at markets, as illustrated by the cases of two shopkeepers who were attacked by Border Intelligence in separate incidents in North Darfur in late July.
Far from the camps, back in the villages where displaced persons used to farm and graze their cattle, there is nothing to prevent the expropriation of land from its legal owners.
Displaced persons regularly speak about how nomads and settlers are destroying their crops, dismantling thatched roofs and stick fences, and taking over their land. This greatly threatens the prospect for sustainable peace.
Land use and occupation gained heightened international attention when about 30,000 mainly Chadian Arabs crossed the border into West Darfur in 2007.
Many Chadians told an assessment team commissioned by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Sudan government's Commissioner for Refugees (COR) that they were fleeing attacks and abuses, actual or feared, by Chadian non-Arab militias and Chadian government forces.
UNHCR recommended that Sudan grant the new arrivals refugee status, excluding those who were active or former combatants.
But UNHCR was also concerned that many Chadian Arabs were settling on land abandoned by internally displaced Darfurians and refugees. According to the UNHCR/COR report, some families occupied fertile land "in areas that used to be predominantly Masalit villages before the Darfur conflict broke out in 2003."
Many settlers along West Darfur's Wadi Azoum riverbed told the UNHRC/COR team that they intended to settle there permanently and would not be returning to Chad. They said that Sudanese nationals gave them specific directions as to where to settle.
UNHCR has urged the Sudanese government to clarify land ownership issues, and ensure that those who own the land - mainly displaced persons in Darfur and refugees in Chad - will eventually be able to return home.
It should not be assumed that this influx is mere opportunism on the part of the Chadian Arabs, who have given testimony to UNHCR of persecution in Chad.
However, many people in West Darfur are suspicious of the Sudan government's motives, which further erodes the tenuous relationship between the government and many Darfurians.
Some assume the male Chadian arrivals will be recruited into armed groups, that the influx ensures displaced people cannot return home, and that this new Chadian presence will result in tens of thousands of extra votes for the ruling National Congress Party in the Sudanese national elections scheduled for 2009.
Humanitarian groups are providing food, medical care, education, water, sanitation, and other assistance to some 4.2 million Darfurians in need of humanitarian relief. But these humanitarian workers have themselves increasingly come under attack.
In June, one in every six relief convoys that left provincial capitals in Darfur was hijacked or ambushed.
Between January and July, 64 relief vehicles were hijacked and 132 staff members were temporarily abducted at gunpoint, 35 relief vehicles were ambushed and looted, and aid agencies were forced to suspend operations and relocate staff due to security concerns 15 times.
Attacks on the relief community have increased 150 per cent in the past year. Despite these problems, humanitarian groups are struggling to reach more people mainly by resorting to more air transport and other means.
According to UN estimates, in February some 900,000 people were inaccessible. That number apparently fell to 560,000 during May and June, but the number remains staggering.
While it is not always known who is responsible for particular attacks on humanitarian workers and hijackings of their vehicles, Sudanese government forces, rebel groups, former rebel groups as well as militia and/or bandits have all on various occasions been responsible.
Looting and hijacking of convoys appear to be aimed primarily at gaining resources such as vehicles and goods. But some of the worst attacks have targeted humanitarian personnel directly.
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