Darfur in danger despite Bashir’s solidarity victory

But, the best resource Darfur has are its people. Very polite, but always asking for water. In this place, riding on a horse or camel is very prestigious.

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So, along the roads, Darfurians lined up with their horses and camels, all thanks to the good organisation skills of the local governor, Mr Osman Mohammed Yousif Kibir, who runs the booming town of El Fasher, whose main source of income are the NGOs serving the millions displaced Darfurians.

Darfur’s economy is closely linked to the fortunes of the many NGOs that call it home.

One of them is Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) whose project coordinator at one of its camps, told of how her employer was told to quit Darfur shortly after the ICC issued its warrant on March 4.

Ms Gemma Davies said the signs were apparent as early as March 1, days before the arrest warrant was issued.

She says: “From March 1, we started getting warnings that our security could not be guaranteed and that our staff should pull out of our stations.’’

Just to imagine impact of the expulsion of 13 NGOs from Darfur, just two branches of the Medecins Sans Frontieres served some 450,000 people.

The estimate is that some one million Darfurians are in immediate danger after the expulsion of NGOs from the region.

In Darfur, a lot of illnesses are water-related. Diarrhoea and skin diseases are common.

Aid agencies, especially the medical ones, even provide washing and sanitation services in areas badly hit by diseases.

In the case of MSF, the country head, Ms Reshma Adatia, was summoned by Sudanese officials and told that the permit that allowed the agency to work in the country had expired and that staff must leave immediately.

Meningitis belt

Once the order was given, Ms Adatia was escorted to the agency’s offices and an inventory of equipment was made. The equipment was seized and the NGO got no record of what was taken. But, the Sudanese government, through a statement from the Foreign ministry says no equipment was seized.

But, to most aid workers, the main concern is with the population left behind, who now have no access to medical care plus their local staff whose source of income was suddenly cut.

One of the most disturbing facts about Darfur is that it lies within Africa’s meningitis belt that covers even Senegal and stretches all the way to Sudan.