CHAD: REFUGEES IN FARCHANA CAMP PUT FAITH IN MAJOR POWERS TO CREATE PEACE SO THEY CAN RETURN HOME TO SUDAN

Record ID: 275261

  • Title: CHAD: REFUGEES IN FARCHANA CAMP PUT FAITH IN MAJOR POWERS TO CREATE PEACE SO THEY CAN RETURN HOME TO SUDAN
  • Date: 28th July 2004
  • Summary: (U7) FARCHANA CAMP, ANDREA, CHAD (JULY 26, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. LV PAN /HAS FARCHANA CAMP 0.12 3. WOMEN WALKING WITH BABIES IN CAMP; WOMAN COOKING FOOD OUTSIDE; SCU POT; CLOSEUP OF CHILDREN 0.33 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) 60 YEAR OLD MOTHER, MARIAN OMAR FADOL, SAYING "It is very difficult life here in the camp, because the Janjaweed took our cat
  • Embargoed: 12th August 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: FARCHANA CAMP, ANDREA, CHAD
  • Country: Chad
  • Reuters ID: LVA65CS7F40A71PCB2EI24GZTT12
  • Story Text: Refugees in the Farchana camp in Chad put faith in
    major powers to create peace, so they can return home.

    The refugees at the Farchana camp are housed in
    rows of tents, dirtied by sand and dust, in a sloping sandy
    landscape dotted by trees some 50 km (30 miles) from the
    border with Sudan.

    Women wrapped in shawls of brightly coloured thin
    fabrics collect water from taps at distribution points
    while others cook rations handed out by the U.N.'s food
    agency over fires.

    Cattle, donkeys and goats run around the camp, where
    puddles have formed in the reddish-brown sand after a
    recent downpour.

    While better off than many still trapped in Darfur, the
    refugees yearn to return to the villages from which they
    were hounded by feared government-backed horse-riding Arab
    militia known as the Janjaweed.

    International efforts to bring peace to the Sudanese
    region of Darfur, where government forces and the Janjaweed
    have been battling a rebellion since last year, gathered
    pace on Monday (July 26).

    The European Union urged the United Nations to consider
    imposing sanctions on Sudan and African leaders pledged to
    discuss Sudan peace initiatives at an African Union summit
    in Ghana later this week.

    The United Nations estimates some 30,000 people have
    been killed and over a million driven from their homes
    since the fighting broke out last year.

    Some 180,000 refugees have already fled Darfur and
    another 450,000 are within 100 km (60 miles) of the border
    and could easily end up in Chad.

    In the camp at Farchana, Mariam Omar Fadol, a
    60-year-old woman from a village west of Geneina, said she
    hoped the United Nations would bring peace to Darfur.

    "It is a difficult life here in the camp because the
    Janjaweed took our cattle," said Fadol, who arrived at the
    camp four months ago and supports her family of more than
    10 with food aid rations.

    Nearby, a young woman cooking a bowl of porridge over a
    small fire outside her tent said she did not have enough
    food for her four children.

    Ahmed Adem Mizan, a health official working as a
    schoolteacher in the camp, said people had been cheered by
    news that Britain could offer 5,000 soldiers for a force
    for Darfur. The news is heard on old shortwave radios.

    "If an international army comes into Darfur, and if
    they can protect the people from killing and beating, I am
    sure the people can go back," he said.



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