Darfur's violence and sorrow spreads to Chad

Ann Curry Today Show Anchor • Profile

GOZ BEIDA, Chad — The conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan, which President Bush has labeled genocide, has intensified in recent weeks after a lull that followed a partial peace agreement signed in May.

The attacks by Arab militia, known as janjaweed and said to be backed by the Sudanese government, have spread from Darfur to neighboring Chad where many Darfurians have been seeking refuge. Chad declared a state of emergency on Monday in the capital, N'Djamena, and some areas on the Sudanese border.

NBC News’ Ann Curry reports from Goz Beida — a UNHCR refugee camp in Chad giving temporary shelter to 15,000 people — on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Sudan and Chad. 

What is the situation like in the refugee camps?
The situation is very sad. About 6,000 of the refugees here are children and they are very hungry. Right now as I speak to you, they are crowding against the fence asking for food and water.

People might think that this is the way things goes in Africa, but in fact these people from Darfur once lived in beautiful villages once where they were well fed, had livestock and put their children through school. They grew so much millet, sorghum and peanuts that they had to store it in huge jars.

What has happened is that there is this firestorm of ethnic cleansing, which started as an effort to seize territory, that has spiraled out of control. The violence is widely blamed on the ambitions of the Arab government of Sudan to seize territory and squash a rebel movement. There has been a systematic burning of people’s homes, and now some 200,000 Darfurians are living in these squalid refugee camps in Chad and their lives are completely changed.

We focused on the children, and I asked them to draw pictures of their lives in Darfur, as well as pictures of what happened in the attacks. The pictures of their lives in Darfur are so full of colors, flowers, animals and happy smiles. And then the pictures of the day of the attacks are full of men with guns, fire and people dying. You can see that even though much of this was almost two years ago, they are still haunted. 

This violence has now escalated. In the last ten days more than 20 villages in Chad have been burned in the same way as the attacks in the Darfur region of Sudan. The perpetrators have come from Sudan, wearing Sudanese military uniforms, and have joined forces with Arabs here in Chad. Now this Arab-on-African violence is moving deep into Chad.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the last ten days and thousands are fleeing. We are hearing every day about villages being lit on fire by these Arab militias, who locals believe have been uniformed and armed by the Sudanese government. The militants are shouting racial epithets, gang-raping women and killing the men.

The U.S. government, the president of Chad and humanitarian workers on the ground are very worried about this very fragile situation. They are concerned that what happened in the Darfur region of Sudan is going to happen in Chad.

Have you seen evidence of the village attacks in Chad?
Yes. We were in the village of Tama Jour, which was set on fire last Wednesday, and the entire village, which once had 600 people, was still smoldering days later. Everything was burned to the ground — even the Koran was burned. We saw animals burned, homes completely destroyed and some fires still raging in the fields. We basically saw a place that had once thrived with 600 people that was now completely empty.

We found the villagers about 70 miles away, here in Goz Beida, under a tree. They were just broken. Before they never had to worry too much about having enough to eat because they were very able farmers, but now their children are cold at night, they don’t have enough food, and many of them are dying.

I met a woman who had four kids, three of whom were sick. I took her back to the village so she could get some food, if there was anything left. She was able to get some millet that had survived the fire. She was moving very fast because the janjaweed are still in the area.

We’ve heard that some humanitarian workers have heard gunfire not far from here. So things are becoming very tenuous. All of the people who came here to Chad for safety may well be on the move again.

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