Wells of Life Run Dry for Sudanese

[gottaB]

Trauma, Malnutrition Leave Many Refugee Mothers Unable to Breast-Feed

BAHAI, Chad -- As she had done every morning for a week, Mecka Ibrahim brought the lips of her howling infant to her breast, hoping the milk would flow again. She shifted the 1-year-old boy's frail little body and adjusted her position, folding and unfolding her legs. She tried again, with lithe arms cradling the boy, Issa. He was hungry and reached for her, but her breast was still dry.

She recognized what health workers had told her, that stress and malnutrition were blocking her ability to produce milk. "I am too sad," Ibrahim said as she rocked the baby, shielding his eyes from a swirling sandstorm approaching Oure Cassoni, a refugee camp on the border with Sudan.

Ibrahim came to this labyrinth of sand-covered tents after her village in the Darfur region of Sudan was attacked 16 months ago and her husband was killed. Five months pregnant, she fled across the desert to Chad. She found herself in the company of women, who make up 90 percent of the adult population of the refugee camp and carry the burdens of a conflict that has displaced 1.5 million people and killed as many as 50,000.

Wells of Life Run Dry for Sudanese....

[bahrbearian]

1. Where is the Help? surely by now We could have sent food .

[gottaB]

2. problems in Chad in particular

Problems in Chad in particular include:

• A massive influx of refugees. Estimates of the number of people needing assistance continue to rise as the violence continues and more Darfuris flee across the border. In March I was seeing numbers like 80,000. Then it was 100,000, 110,000, 120,000, 140,000, 160,000, 180,000 and lately 200,000. I anticipate the official UN estimates to reach 240,000 in September.
  
  
• Donor shortfall.
  
  
• By the time refugees reach Chad, they are usually in bad shape. Really bad shape.
  
  
• Chad is not a wealthy nation. Even by African standards it is impoverished (unlike Sudan which could easily afford to feed its people). Food stores in host communities have been depleted. The markets are bare.
  
  
• Insecurity. There have been cross-border raids on the refugees by their tormenters. The Chadian army was perhaps slow to defend it's border, but eventually troops were deployed to repel the incursions. A few months ago UNHCR began to move people into camps further in from the border. That's helping with the security situation, but it is costly. Another unanticipated expense.
  
  
• The French were slow to respond to calls for assistance. Only recently (after French foreign minister Michel Barnier visited refugee camps in Darfur, and the rains began in earnest) have the French made their aircraft and soldiers in Chad available to help the food delivery effort.
  

I suppose we could point fingers at others. Why did Libya wait until July to open a corridor? Why were donors so slow to react? The thing not to forget is that the biggest problem with feeding Darfuri refugees in Chad is that the government of Sudan decided it was a good policy to destroy their crops, poison their wells, and drive them from their homes.

Look at how USAID summarizes its contributions:

http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/sudan/darfur.html

Or see how the Brits are giving:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3552114.stm

The latest from UNCHR:

http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/chad?page=news&id=412606f24

On the left there are links to find out about projected needs and donations received.

Now compare that to what the Sudanese government has done.

[gottaB]

6. Rains hold up vital supplies for villagers fleeing Sudan crisis

Rains hold up vital supplies for villagers fleeing Sudan crisis

[TheFarseer]

3. 2 points

I'll never figure out why we don't take all the excess grain we have in this country and send it over to places like that. I think it's a good move on so many levels.

Isn't Sudan a big Al Queda nation? Maybe even the biggest after Afghanistan. Why don't we do something to stabalize the Sudan instead of taking out stable non-Al Queda nations? Why can't anything ever make sense with the Bush administration?

[Raiden]

4. Yes, but it has no oil

Therefore, it's not going to get any aid from us.

[gatlingforme]

5. You hit the nail on the head. No oil = no aid.