More4’s Nima Elbagir has been to Darfur, to see if the recent ceasefire was having any effect. Her findings were disturbing. Neither the ceasefire, nor the presence of African Union troops have been able to protect the villagers of Darfur.
The janjaweed militias are still burning villages, and the camps of displaced persons are growing ever more rapidly. Here were her thoughts on her return to London.
I got off a plane from Sudan this morning and have circled around my desk since then trying to put my thoughts into some sort of coherent order so I could possibly even begin to explain the chaos of this trip to Darfur.
First I guess I should start by saying that it's horrific. Not in that grinding day-to-day monotony of horror that is the reality of displaced camps and the wheels of the international community grinding slowly. The horror comes in a seemingly endless succession of impressions.
Yet another orphan, yet another widow, yet another raped girl. Reeling, you end up too busy fighting for breath to fight the tears like a proper journalist would.
It was like 2003 all over again, and the images that spurred the world into realisation - if not action. People living under the shade of trees, children coughing flies and dribbling mucus.
It's the hospitality that always creeps under my defences, people with nothing taking your hand and pulling you in close. You hate yourself for tensing from their need but you tense nonetheless to steel yourself against the begging that you think you know will come.
And it does. They beg you to forgive them for not offering you tea. Beg you to wait while their wives borrow grain from neighbours so you don't think that they were not once a proud people with land and hospitality and a knowledge of the dues owed a guest.
Outside the makeshift camps it's the half empty villages that are much more horrible than the empty ones because when you clock children peaking through rush fences you know it's because the villagers have nowhere left to go
Nowhere is safe. The Janjaweed are riding again. Did they ever stop?
I guess we all thought they did or would. We told each other in grown up voices that there would be a period of adjustment after peace was signed, that you couldn’t expect peace just like that. What would they do with their weapons? What were their options?
Nima spoke about what she saw in Darfur on the Morning Report, the new podcast from Channel 4 News. Listen to that interview here. Or click here to subscribe to the podcast feed.
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