Return To Darfur: Plea For A Peaceful Morning

When I first started getting involved in the Darfur movement, the almost complete focus for everyone that cared was Darfur itself. The experts did talk about threats to the region, if Darfur was left to burn. As months and years went by, the talks turned to the need to think of Sudan as a whole and find a comprehensive approach to the country’s problems, including Darfur. Now, we must focus on the larger region, including Chad, Central African Republic, Sudan…and Darfur.

I know that this should have been the focus from the beginning, but we tend to want to keep it simple, since it’s so difficult to create attention for even the more focused and manageable to the mind in Darfur.

Every trip to Chad has included being close, in time or in distance, to fighting. Hearing bullets being shot in to the night air became fairly normal. Being told and warned of bandits robbing cars was expected. Rebel activity was just part of Chadian reality, I felt. But, the big fighting and horrors were still in Darfur.

Being caught in N’Djamena during the coup did not feel normal, and we did not expect it. This time, we came even more aware of the realities of Chad, but it’s not exactly every-day stuff to me hearing of heavy rebel and Chadian military movement and a possible repeat of all-out fighting in the capital.

We are safe, and safer than in February, when we were stuck just next door to the bulls-eye of the attack, the presidential palace. Our friends in Abeche have treated us more than wonderfully.