Darfur's Displaced Battle Hunger, Disease, Raids

Sudan's 2.5M refugees struggle to survive
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 8, 2007 1:05 PM CST
Darfur's Displaced Battle Hunger, Disease, Raids
In this previously un transmitted photo, children drive a donkey cart through the Otash refugee camp on the outskirts of Nyala, South Darfur, Sudan on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007. (AP Photo/Alfred de Montesquiou)   (Associated Press)

"It is unsafe for me to go back home and it's not safe here," a resident of Abu Chok, a refugee camp in Darfur currently home to 54,000, tells the Guardian. Residents endure endemic malnutrition, malaria, and typhoid in hopes of security—the camp is 4 miles from a base for African Union forces—but find that government-sponsored attacks follow them everywhere.

The UN, over Khartoum’s objections, reported at least 15 government and affiliated militia attacks on civilian centers this week. Analysts say this period of "low-level" hostility may foretell renewed widespread conflict, a terrifying thought for Darfur’s 2.5 million refugees. A promised 20,000 UN troops are scheduled to arrive next month, although only 9,000 will be ready by then. (More Darfur stories.)

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