September 26, 2007
Camembert and sour cherries in Darfur
Times/Irish Times reporter Rob Crilly is in Darfur at the moment. And he has found time on his trip to set up a blog - South of West: A journalist in Africa.
The latest post gives more background to his article in today's London Times about new fears of violence in the camps.
The first post he wrote gave a rare picture of life at the other end of the social scale in North Darfur's capital El Fasher.
While the camp dwellers of Abu Shouk, Zam Zam and Al Salaam find their wells have dried up, and wait for their food deliveries, the long-term town residents are making heaps of money running shops selling olive oil, Camembert (fabrique en France) and jars of sour cherries to the expats working for the African Union/United Nations/aid agencies. I'll be checking out the pizza restaurant later.
The social divide is going to get even wider later this year when the long-awaited 26,000 AU/UN peacekeepers start rolling into town, allegedly from next month. They are already having to send it truck-loads of bottled water for the current collection of less that 6,000 AU peacekeepers in Darfur. No one has worked out what they are going to do to satisfy the thirst of a force more than four time that size.
Just what Darfur needs - another cause for conflict, this time over who gets to drink.
Posted by aheavens at September 26, 2007 3:19 PM
Comments
Thanks for the link. Looks like it'll be an interesting blog.
Posted by: William Deed at September 26, 2007 5:16 PM
Well the UN said it will pay.. so let them pay.. they definitely can't share the rare water supply with the residents.
Posted by: Ayman at September 27, 2007 8:54 PM
Beeping has been going on in Europe for years. Nothing new.
Posted by: john at September 28, 2007 3:17 PM