Chad
How is it for kids to flee their country from war and ethnic violence? What do you play with when there are no toys around? And how can you learn when there is no school in the refugee camp? For Samsam Magazine, I interviewed Aliyah (blue headscarf, 3rd photo) who fled from El Geneina, Darfur (in West Sudan).
The French army is reluctantly withdrawing further and further from the Sahel. Anti-French sentiment is also on the rise in Chad, the last partner of France in the region. “They support a dictatorial regime that kills its own people.”
More than 420,000 people have fled across the border as attacks by militias in West Darfur continue. Another 200,000 people are expected to follow. Yet, says one refugee, ‘the international community does nothing’.
To see the 20 pictures and read the stories of Darfuri refugees, click here.
Executions of tied up young men, children murdered with axes and mass attacks on groups of fleeing civilians - these are just some of the terrible stories that Darfuris refugees told us in eastern Chad.
Hundreds of thousands have crossed the border in recent months. The vast majority of people moved to the camp that emerged next to Adré, a sleepy border village that has since been transformed into a gigantic humanitarian hub.
But the humanitarian support in the camp is still inadequate: the rest of the world is busy with other crises, the situation in Adré is dire. Although malnourished children are helped to regain their strength, they run the risk of becoming malnourished again when they are discharged from the clinic. There is simply not enough of everything in the camp.
Our report on the violence in Darfur, which is strongly reminiscent of the ethnic cleansing of 20 years ago, is on the front page of the Volkskrant today, with beautiful images by photographer Sven Torfinn.
