At Costi Iranean troops are waiting ready to intervene against the rebels. From the city, a nerve centre for transport to the south, barges and ferry boats are leaving along the Nile, packed with people and the luggage; twice their capacity. In the city crowded with thousands of refugees waiting to embark, serious problems are developing for accommodation and hygiene. People are already dying from sickness and hunger, especially mothers and young children; the people a terrified. The south is becoming a huge refugee campo with all the inevitable problems of assistance ands survival.
At Khartoum there is a large camp where people who want to go to the south are gathering. They are being promised a place on the convoys of trucks which are leaving the city. After waiting for a month. The money put to one side for the journey have been spent on food and other prime necessities. The camp is surrounded by police and among the few allowed to enter are some Sudanes parish priests. There is a shortage of everything: food, water for drinking and for washing, blankets, tents. Temporary hygienic services have been organised 500 metres from the camp in the desert. The spread of disease is almost inevitable.
Today a small delegation of support will enter the refugee camp with food, water and money for the journey for some families. The group is composed of Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionary Sisters of Charity, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and two Salesians.
According to reports from Misna, the violence was at its height on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday the leader of the mediator, Djibril Bassole, invited the different parties to cease fighting and to return to the negotiating table.
The proposed agreement would lead to an immediate cease fire and the return to peace talks so as to arrive at a definitive agreement. Sources from the combined UNO- African Union Mission in Darfur (Unamid) have confirmed that in the last 48 hours there have been no reports of fresh fighting in the region, pointing out, however, that the situation in the North and in Southern Darfur remains extremely tense.
Published 28/12/2010
