Sudan

Field update from al-Jeneina

The delegation spent today visiting IDP camps and villages outside al-Jeneina.

We drove for two hours through a wadi (dried river bed) and very poor dirt roads, covering 10 km/hour to Gokar village, south of al Jeneina. On our way to Gokar village, we saw village after village abandoned, where Masalit and Borgu people lived until a few months ago -- now camel and sheep graze on them. The entrance to the huts is now overgrown with long grass, broken pots lie on the ground, a child's shoe rests in the doorway and where people used to live wasps' nests hang from the ceiling.

We met groups of displaced women and children collecting wood with donkeys very far away from the IDP camps -- they are afraid for their security, but come this distance out of desperation. We met Arabic-speaking nomads on horseback who refused to speak to us. However, we later spoke to two young nomadic girls who had come to the market in Gokar, but were unable to give us any information about the situation of their tribes, or security in their area.

We met a man who told us of the massacre in Murli -- the first village to be raided after the rebels had attacked the airfield in al Fasher in April 2003. He told us that, despite repeated attacks, the villagers of Murli had decided they would not leave their homes.

In Gokar, we found that the original inhabitants of that village had been attacked and driven out, their cattle and goats stolen by the Janjawid, some months ago, and they had fled to IDP camps in al-Jeneina or to Chad, but the village had been repopulated by 3,000 displaced persons who in turn had been driven out from neighbouring villages and had now found shelter in Gokar. When we asked them why it was safe for them to be in Gokar while the original inhabitants had fled to Al Jeneina and Chad, the IDPs replied that their sheep and goats had been stolen and they had nothing more to lose.

We spoke to the head of a police contingent of 80 policemen who have been redeployed from eastern Sudan to boost the twenty or so local policemen, but have been given no communications equipment or other resources. The displaced said they had no confidence in the police who could not protect them from attacks.

A 15-year-old girl told us how she, together with two other girls, had gone out of the village to collect grass when five Janjawid men attacked them. She tried to run away, but she was raped by two men and is now three months pregnant. She submitted a complaint to the police, but nothing appears to have been done about it.

In Riyad camp in al-Jeneina, we talked to many IDPs, some of whom had been displaced twice. Many described how they had been attacked by the Janjawid and forced to leave their villages. Two women gave moving testimony of how they were driven out from their village in Nuri. It was attacked by Janjawid and men in uniforms and also bombed aerially and is now empty. The women talked of 130 people being killed in the Nuri area by Janjawid and military bombardment. The women had to bury the men because there were no men left to do this, the woman we spoke to helped bury seven men. The women put bodies they could not bury that evening in a shelter, the Janjawid came in the night and burnt the shelter and the bodies.

One woman said she was running for 60 days, suffering from extreme thirst and hunger. For 6 days, they only had a cup of water to drink each. She fled from Nuri to Sissi (an IDP camp we visited) and then from Sissi she came to Riyad. She lost everything; even the clothes she is now wearing she received through the charity of the people she now works for. She has no family members left other than her grandchildren who are with her in the camp.

Another woman also said that, during the flight, they were thirsty and hungry constantly. "If we managed to find some food, the Janjawid would come and take it away. In my village, I had 30 cows and 40 sheep and now we have nothing. We can't go back, the government expelled us."

Mohammed, who comes from a village about 10 hours away from Riyad camp in al-Jeneina, spoke of how his village was attacked in November 2003 by armed men on horses, camels and in vehicles. The village was also bombed by two types of military aircraft. One hundred and sixty people were killed that day, including 29 from his family. After the attack, they gathered the dead bodies and covered them with grass as a form of burial.

About 80 people ran into the bush and no-one knows where they are. He himself was separated for 59 days from the rest of the villagers. "I have come here, but I do not feel safe here. I have not stepped out of the camp for more than 15 minutes. The government tried to pressure IDPs to return to their villages, I refused and I was attacked by two gunmen. I complained to the police, but they said they could not accept my complaint because it was a state of emergency."

Macca described how her village was attacked in November 2003 when nomads arrived on camels and attacked them. Seven of her family members were killed. Her son, Abboud, who worked for the Red Crescent, was killed in December while travelling from her village to al-Jeneina.

Another delegation is currently in the town of Nyala.