Monday, February 19, 2007

Nomads attack Darfur refugeesNomads attack Darfur refugees

Nomads attack Darfur refugees
Posted by Alrabae Adam Ezaldeen

Violence now comes from neighbouring tribes, not janjaweed
Actress, activist and UNICEF ambassador Mia Farrow talks to women in the Central African Republic town of Birao, near the Sudan border. Ms. Farrow is seeking to draw world attention to what aid workers call a 'forgotten crisis.'
Photograph by : Giacomo Pirozzi, Reuters
GAGA, Chad - Fatma Daoud wrapped a plastic bag as a makeshift bandage around her hand, using a corner of her brightly colored robe to wipe the blood from the knife wound that had cut her to the bone.
The 36-year-old woman, a refugee from Sudan's war-torn Darfur, had left her camp in eastern Chad to gather firewood when she was attacked by young Chadian nomads.
"They were three boys, camel herders. They told me to stop collecting wood and then they stabbed me," Ms. Daoud said, calm despite the attack that had happened only minutes before outside the Gaga refugee camp.
At least 230,000 ethnic Africans have fled Darfur to take refuge in camps in neighbouring Chad -- and their numbers are growing. But the refugees crowded into 12 camps are facing increased tensions with Chadians in a competition for scarce resources in the barren border region.
The friction comes despite the fact that both the refugees and the Chadians belong to tribes that straddle the border.
Ms. Daoud, for instance, said she recognized her assailants. They weren't the Arab Sudanese janjaweed militiamen who attacked her home in Darfur, but herders from the ethnic African Zaghawa tribe.
On the Sudanese side of the border, the Zaghawas are among the tribes that have been targeted in Darfur and they form the backbone of some rebel groups battling the janjaweed and government troops. But in Chad, they are affluent camel herders with close ties to power, since President Idriss Deby and most of the top military are Zaghawas.
"Life has been quieter in Chad, but now it's getting hard," said Ms. Daoud as she stood under the fierce afternoon sun waiting for humanitarian workers to treat her wound. A member of the Massalit tribe, she fled Darfur when the janjaweed destroyed her village, about 100 kilometres east of Gaga across the border.
The sudden settlement of large numbers of refugees risks exacerbating what has long been a competition among Chadians for land, grazing areas, wood and other resources in the border region.
"There has been age-old tensions between farmers and herders here," said Serge Male, Chad's country director for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "But it's becoming a regional situation, and Darfur is the essential worsening factor."
The nomad-refugee tensions, though still small scale, add yet another layer of danger in the region's interwoven conflicts.
- In Darfur, Sudanese government troops and their allies, the janjaweed, are battling ethnic African rebels in a conflict that has killed at least 200,000 people since 2003. The janjaweed are accused of widespread atrocities against ethnic African villagers,.
- In Chad, Chadian rebels based in Sudan and Darfur have launched attacks on Chadian forces and towns. They are often followed by janjaweed fighters, who enter Chad and attack villages, according to aid workers.

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