The crisis in Darfur has been described as one of the gravest humanitarian tragedies in history. Despite the crucial breakthrough in securing approval for the deployment of nearly 26, 000 peacekeeping troops to the region this is unlikely to improve the fate of Darfur’s burgeoning refugee population who may find themselves in the crossfire - and increasingly facing an uncertain fate as to where they can seek refuge from further attacks.

Three years of fighting in Darfur have destroyed hundreds of villages, displaced 2.2 million and led to more than 400,000 deaths. These statistics present but a mere fraction of the true nature of the disaster and human suffering that has been inflicted upon the people of Darfur.

The fate of Darfur’s fleeing and increasingly growing refugee population has yet again come in the spotlight following an announcement by the Israeli Government that it would no longer allow entry of Darfur’s refugees.

Israel in late-August 2007 announced that it planned to turn back refugees arriving from Sudan's war-torn Darfur area, prompting arguments over whether the Jewish state had a duty to take in people fleeing persecution. Late in August, Israel handed over 48 Sudanese, allegedly including Darfurians, to the authorities in Egypt, security officials in Egypt said. For months Israel has been concerned about how to deal with the major influx of Africans, including some people from Darfur, who have passed over its southern border with Egypt's Sinai desert. (1)

In July 2007 newspaper reports focused on the growing influx of Sudanese refugees to Israel. Reports cited that refugees from Sudan's Darfur crisis were reaching Israel in ever higher numbers, prompting plans to confine them in a refugee camp and eventually to force them back to Egypt. About 400 refugees trickled into Israel from Egypt over the past two years, but the number had tripled since April 2007 after Sudanese relatives and acquaintances in Egypt were encouraged by reports that many had found work in hotels in the resort town of Eilat. When the refugees started arriving in Israel, they were imprisoned.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed at a recent meeting that the refugees would be returned to Egypt, but human rights advocates say they will appeal any mass deportation to the Israeli Supreme Court.

The decision to turn back asylum seekers from Darfur contradicts the pledge of Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, to "absorb" the newcomers. An Israeli Government spokesperson stated however that those asylum seekers already in Israel would be allowed to stay and that the new policy would be affecting only new arrivals.

Most of the displaced people remain in Darfur, but the UN estimates that 236,000 fled to Chad. About 2,800 people are estimated to have entered Israel illegally through Sinai in recent years. Nearly all were from Africa, including 1,160 from Sudan, and many had first spent months or years in Egypt. This June, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, as many as 50 people were entering illegally each day.

The Israeli Government’s decision could be based on growing fears that the Darfur region is likely to face increased insecurity and instability in the run-up to the deployment of peacekeeping forces to the region and that the likely result would be that major conflict and confrontation is likely to occur between militias, rebel leaders and those peacekeeping forces attempting to restore order to the war-torn region. This is likely to place innocent civilians in the direct line of fire and therefore the likelihood of a major influx of refugees attempting to flee even farther a field from the ensuing chaos is a worst-case scenario that appears more likely than ever before.

The conditions (that continue to deteriorate) inside refugee camps within Darfur have equally been a cause for grave concern.

Two reports published as far back as 2004 accused the Sudanese government and Arab militia of massive abuses in western Darfur region. The United Nations says Darfur refugees are systematically being starved. Human Rights Watch says black Africans are deliberately being driven off the land. In a report published in 2004, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights described a "reign of terror" in the region. Militias prevented food deliveries and stopped anyone leaving, the report said. One aid worker in the region of Kailek described what happened there as the "politics of starvation" (2). The report said women and girls were raped and described inhumane sanitary conditions and a lack of medical treatment.

A report released by the New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused the Sudanese government of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region of western Sudan. It says the tactics involved include mass rape, summary execution and the systematic burning of villages and crops.

A Washington Post report in April 2006, nearly two years later highlighted the continued crisis in the region:

“Currently, Hollywood celebrities, college students, religious leaders and experts champion the plight of the Darfur victims. But despite the attention, the United Nations has been unable to raise enough money to support its operations in Sudan. The U.N. World Food Program announced that it had received only 32% of its appeal for $746 million for its operations in Sudan, and that food rations to the camps would be cut in half” (3).

Nearly a year later in 2007 similar harrowing tales of despair continue to characterize the refugee crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region. The situation alongside the border of Chad remains equally dire. In Djabal Refugee Camp, eastern Chad, children, victims and witnesses to the brutality of the conflict in Darfur, vividly illustrate through their drawings, horrific images of war: planes bombing villages, huts on fire, men with guns shooting women, attackers on horseback, a head being shot off and images of attack helicopters. (4) It has been more than three years since the 230 000 Sudanese refugees who are living along Chad's eastern border with Darfur fled their homes, and their pain shows little sign of abating.

The overall security situation in the refugee camps are also a major cause for concern and even within these camps Darfur’s refugee population continue to face persecution by security forces targeting alleged rebels. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) staged a demonstration on 22 August after Sudanese forces raided one of Darfur’s largest camps, Kalma camp in South Darfur to arrest suspects believed to be behind a series of attacks on police stations. Approximately 2,800 police, army and border intelligence officers surrounded the camp, which hosts an estimated 90,000 people. “They arrested 30 IDPs, burnt down 12 shelters and looted 175 others. (5)

Kalma is one of Darfur’s most unstable camps. Two years ago, IDPs set fire to government offices, forcing officials to abandon the camp. IDPs also killed an AU translator in the camp. The AU has been unable to end the violence in the region and has met resistance in trying to promote a May 2006 peace deal that was signed by only one of three negotiating rebel groups. Most IDPs in Kalma support Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nur, faction leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, who rejected the peace agreement. “The government continues to practice brutal killings and displacement of our people in camps after forcing them to flee their villages,” Nur’s group said in a statement on the incident in Kalma.

It is therefore abundantly clear that, while the deployment of peacekeeping forces comes at an opportune time, there continues to be very little prospects of redress for the thousands of refugees from Darfur. While peacekeeping forces are likely to provide much-needed protection to the refugee camps in the region, this alone will not be sufficient to address the major refugee crisis that threatens to spiral further out of control. Lack of security being felt by Darfur’s refugee population is likely to lead to further attempts to flee the war-torn region to neighbouring countries and continued attempts to gain entry into countries farther a field.

The refugee crisis is likely to be exacerbated even further with the recent floods in Sudan and is likely to compound an already serious humanitarian tragedy unfolding in the country. The UN has warned that an estimated 3.5 million people are at risk of disease because of the floods that have claimed 90 lives and affected 400,000 people across the country. The warning followed an appeal by the UN and the government of Sudan for US$ 20 million to help support the flood victims.

There is a clear state of emergency in Darfur and the most brutal legacy that has been left behind from this senseless conflict is a scarred population that is unlikely to recover from the physical and psychological trauma that has been inflicted upon them. While there appears ample prospects and sufficient grounds for seeking asylum and refugee status in other countries and abroad, which cannot and should not under any circumstances be denied by any country receiving refugees from Darfur, there is regrettably no refuge that can be sought from the fact that there has yet again been a major failure by both African states and the international community to respond in time when the people of Darfur faced their darkest hour. In this sense the international community has already lost the peace in Sudan, even though they are likely to win the war sometime in the distant future.

Notes:

(1) Laurie Copans, Israel vows entry ban on Darfur Refugees, The Guardian, 20 August 2007
(2) BBC News, Sudan ‘starving Darfur refugees’, 7 May 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/3692005.stm
(3) Emily Wax, A Loss of Hope Inside Darfur Refugee Camps, Washington Post, 30 April 2006
(4) Stephanie Hancock, Darfur Refugees Haunted by Past, Reuters, 17 August 2007
(5) IRIN News, Sudan: IDPs lead protest over police raid on fragile camp, 22 August 2007, http://www.irinnews.org