Darfur - Day 5

Please note that any opinions expressed in this blog are those of Chip Duncan and do not represent any other organizations or individuals. Darfur is a place of constant change and any statistical references are approximate and may change rapidly. If you are reading this after January, 2008, please verify any information with up-to-date and verifiable resources.


Day 5 – January 5th, 2008 – We wake early and are soon boarding the regular U.N. charter flight to the city of El Fasher. It takes us about two hours flying west from Khartoum on a very loud Fokker 50 aircraft to reach our destination. The flight is about two thirds full with humanitarian workers from the U.N., the World Food Program and various NGOs operating in the region. I’ve been told there are approximately 25 NGOs operating in the area from several countries around the world, all providing various services.

Everyone on the flight is limited to 15 kilos so no one is bringing along much more than a change of clothes and whatever they need for business.

The outskirts of Khartoum remind me of Lima, Peru – the further you move from the center of town, the poorer it gets. And further out means drier and less hospitable. For most of the two hour flight, there’s nothing remarkable to look at – just flat, brown desert. I’ve been told that the area was forested with significant wildlife and was a prime hunting area as recently as twenty years ago. The deforestation appears significant now, with all the challenges of the resulting climate change. But there are pockets of trees visible beginning just east of El Fasher. As we circle El Fasher, we can also see the lake in the city center. It’s roughly a mile long and ringed by a single band of trees. It is worth noting that Sudan in general has significant water resources. Though we’re in Darfur in the dry season, there appears to be an adequate supply of water.

The landing is uneventful though the airport is among the oldest I’ve ever seen – no doubt another relic from the British past. It is, however, serviceable.

After our arrival, there are several meetings we need to participate in, most of which involve letting government authorities know we’re in town and planning to document the work being done by Relief International. We’re told, as we anticipated, that any filming or photographs must be limited to documenting the work of Relief International.

The city itself is a crossroads with several roads leading in and out – most of which are paved within the city. We could see hundreds of small villages when flying in; however, it was impossible to tell from the air whether they were inhabited. What is clear is that El Fasher is booming and bustling with activity – at least during the day. In addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced people living in close proximity, the city is also full of people who’ve lived there for years, hundreds of NGO workers and thousands of soldiers from either the government or one of the various factions, international and local.

One thing I find fascinating but hadn’t thought about until my arrival is the economic impact that NGOs and the UN and AU forces are having on the city. Everyone needs goods and services so the economy is on a definite upswing. Thousands of NGO workers need bottled water, food, vehicle maintenance, and housing. There are jobs to be found today that didn’t exist a few years ago – drivers, cleaning staff, cooks, security, vendors, haulers – you name it. The market in central El Fasher is packed full of sellers and buyers of everything from auto parts to fruit, vegetables, meat and sugar cane. The tomatoes are spectacular and the local fare includes fried grasshoppers – which, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try. Water is also a sold commodity and the sellers distribute it with large oil-type tanks welded together and loaded onto carts pulled by horseback. There’s a well on the edge of town that’s busy all day long with water vendors filling up their tanks.

Our first day in El Fasher includes some driving about town and stops at both the guest house and Relief International offices. There are more briefings for tomorrow’s visit to Zam Zam camp.

There’s a curfew that everyone lives by and in our case that means mid-to-late afternoon in the guest house. The roads in the area close at 7:00 p.m. and the city curfew to be off the street completely is 8:00 p.m. For most NGO workers, it’s another early night catching up on the latest novel or watching satellite t.v. In our case, we’re catching on the news from Kenya, where things are not looking much better since I departed.


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Thanks for following along on The Road To Darfur. Please visit again tomorrow for Day 6. If you’d like more information on the humanitarian work performed by Relief International throughout Sudan or elsewhere, please visit RI.org. For more information on The Duncan Group, visit DuncanEntertainment.com.