InterAction President & CEO Sam Worthington in visiting humanitarian workers in Sudan. Follow along as he posts diary entries and shares photos from along his trip.
February 26, 2008 – El Fasher, North Darfur
 “The backbone of Darfur is the donkey,” said an NGO colleague and the reality of Darfur begins to sink in. For years I have read about this place, and hours in confidential NGO and official briefings at InterAction provided a strong professional background. After two days here and countless hours talking with colleague living and working in North Darfur, I’m finally getting a feel for this place. The ubiquitous donkey, laden with bags of food, or used for transportation by young women, their headscarves neatly flowing behind them as they sit, side saddle, with a short stick in hand to steer their way through town. A donkey in Darfur does not have an easy life. They are however essential to the survival of the various warring tribes that call this land home. Their health is linked to the heath and wealth of a family. A Relief International program vet provides injections to over 3,000 donkeys each week, and the occasional Janjaweed rides by to get care for his camel. This is not an easy place for humanitarian NGO workers.
Our compound is secure. A colleague has moved to sleep elsewhere so that I can have his bed. It’s a bare room with high plaster walls and four bamboo poles that neatly create a tent for the bed’s mosquito net. With Orion’s Belt directly overhead the stars at night are amazing, and the compound is serene as it is bathed in moon light. El Fasher, the political seat of Darfur, is quiet and will hopefully remain that way until before dawn, when the calls to prayer cry across the town. There is no gun fire tonight. I am told that is not always the case. Darfur is at times described as the Wild West and, thanks to the war and relief economy, El Fasher is certainly a small boom town. At night the curfew shuts everything down.
On our way to Zam Zam camp we drive past the African Union’s AMIS base that marks the edge of El Fasher, with its razor wire and sandbag machine gun emplacements. We drive swiftly through various pro-GOS checkpoints after having our HAC documents checked at the edge of town. Zam Zam is often referred to as a 5 star camp as it is well run by tribal leaders. Unfortunately, the edge of the camp marks the harshness of the ongoing conflict, as new refugees have streamed in over the past 4 months, with nothing but themselves from their villages in the south. To the north of El Fasher, the Abu Shouk and Al Salaam Camps are now home to the tribes across the north of Darfur.
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In the middle of the camp, we visit a Relief International clinic. It is well run and filled with women and children. The clinic provides nutritional and medical assessment, access to medication, direct treatment, maternity and nutritional support. Hundreds of people sit quietly in a well shaded area. They are waiting their turn to be processed by six different support teams working out of very large UNICEF tents or simple structures with USAID plastic siding. All the professionals are locals, with their white frocks and focused work; there is a calm efficiency to the clinic. The one expatriate is a doctor from Tajikistan. Dr. Jamila is a long time humanitarian professional and she has lived and worked in Darfur for three years.
 A woman in a brilliant yellow headscarf hands over her child to be weighed. He is four, and at 8 kg is severely malnourished. His small frame is gently handled by the staff before he is handed back to his mother who helps him get dressed. When asked when she arrived at Zam Zam she informs the staff that she came from the south today, she walked for four hours across the hard, dry and deserted land since sunrise. In the clinic the mother and her child will be treated for malnutrition, provided special nutrition supplements, treatments for cuts, and medicines including antibiotics.
The sheiks, representing the Mudhajena, sit in a half circle patiently waiting for the introductions to end. They have collected all their requests onto one piece of paper. The requests are simple: Can we plant the land? We need health services for the newcomers, and basic building materials (plastic sheets) and blankets for the elderly that have just arrived as many are still sleeping in the open. Can you do something to help us educate our children? We need hand pumps and water tanks in the area where the newcomers have arrived. Can you help us with latrines? Can you expand your training and access to more fuel efficient stoves? Is there someway you can help us with the collection of our garbage? Can we have a generator to have light? Zam Zam is a large complicated place that has 48,000 inhabitants, with 8,000 arriving in the last 4 months. One arrived today.
 It is amazing how much has been accomplished in three years. We visit and pass other NGOs, some members of InterAction, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF), and other local NGOs, SUDO and Red Crescent (The other camps depend on other NGOs, with about 30 operating out of El Fasher and many more out of Geneina and Nyala). At a Spanish Red Cross-WFP food distribution center, we witness the steady distribution of 50 kg bags of food, gift from the American people (USAID) or the European Union. Zam Zam exists because the world cares.
Unfortunately it’s reality that is not sustainable. And even though parts of the camp are beginning to resemble the villages its inhabitants left, they cannot stay here. Too many people live here, all brought together through the fear and violence that still surrounds this place. While North Darfur is not experiencing the open warfare and bombing that is going on in the Sirba region near Chad, banditry is rampant as armed men roam the country side for easy targets. On one side of Zam Zam government troops hold El Fasher, on the other there is a Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) checkpoint. A peace agreement exists between the two, but splinter rebel groups continue to move through the country side. South of Tawila, various commanders each with their own force, may sadly someday resemble the warlords of Somalia. And yet, hundred of trucks in convoys from Chad bring in food and keep El Fasher a boom town.
Every international NGO in El Fasher I talked to had been attacked, in some way or other.
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