Postcard from the edge

It feels like the end of the earth here. At night, when the moon comes up, it is so huge and bright you would swear it was just outside your window, close enough to touch. By day, the land is barren and dry, a sandy wasteland where everything seems to move in slow motion. The people are tired, hot and hungry, and their bone-thin frames, gaunt faces and shuffling gaits sometimes give an almost ghoulish impression, as though they have somehow mistakenly wandered across the border from hell.

Maybe they have. The fighting has started again, we hear, though the details are sketchy see article. The JEM – the Justice and Equality Movement of Darfur – clashed with Sudanese troops yesterday morning, with at least fifty wounded on the Sudanese side. In response, the Sudanese have bombed the border lands, possibly on the Chadian side as well. It isn’t yet clear exactly where the bombs fell, but the fighting was very near the Oure Cassoni refugee camp, and we fear the worst. The camp is known to be a key recruiting spot for the JEM. Besides, bombing from Antonov aircrafts is not a precise affair; it's a matter of opening the cargo hatch and letting 'em roll.

This morning, many of the team are attending an emergency meeting of the UN, key NGOs, the local government, and the French military to share information about what happened and whether we anticipate any humanitarian impact. It’s still too early to tell, but all but one of the refugee camps are already packed to capacity, so if there is significant population movement across the border, we may not be able to handle it. The French should be able to tell us more, since they have listening stations at the border and regularly monitor this type of activity. Probably the African Union will also fill in some of the gaps.

Speaking of the AU, after the third time driving by a bunch of AU troops lounging under a tree, I finally asked the head of our local office to explain what exactly they are doing. He said, “They’re observers, here to monitor the peace agreement.”

I told him I understood why, on paper, the AU observers were in Chad. “But look at them just lying around all the time! What are they actually doing?”

Shrugging, he replied, “They’re observing.”

Their compatriots on the Sudanese side of the border are having a more interesting time of it, unfortunately. The clashes near Bahai were anticipated, and more are sure to follow. Last night, we chatted with a Darfuri academic who is now a research fellow at Harvard. He comes here every few months for field research, and what he sees must break his heart. He thinks the blood is about to flow in earnest. Khartoum knows it cannot hold off peacekeepers forever, no matter how bilious its protestations to the international community. Eventually, the AU force will either be radically expanded or re-hatted as UN peacekeepers – as UNMIS, the United Nations Mission in Sudan. Before that happens, Khartoum is determined to make a final push against the JEM and other non-signatories of the Darfur Peace Agreement, to mow as many of them down as possible before peacekeepers deploy along the borderlands.

Morale among aid workers is low. Every morning, as we pour ourselves cups of Nescafe in the UNHCR cafeteria, we swap stories about skirmishes and clashes; forty refugees here, five thousand internally displaced (IDPs) there. In low voices, we speculate into our cups about where the next military strike will occur. We commiserate with the IRC workers whose colleagues are treating the wounded Sudanese military smack in the middle of JEM territory, bracing for the inevitable moment when the rebels will come looking for the soldiers they failed to kill.

I will almost certainly leave before the real shit hits the fan. But I’m actually not quite sure how I feel about that. It will be strange to abandon these people, these friends I’ve made, leaving them with nothing but good wishes as they brace against the tide. They’ll all be fine, Inshallah, but they will need every bit of strength they can muster.

Do me a favour – send them some good vibes, will you?