September 9, 2007
Locusts, generators, the PDF and the SLA - a fortnight in Khartoum
Been too busy to blog over the past two weeks. Here are some of the highlights of what has been going on. This fortnight, I have been mostly:
- Having members of the Popular Defence Forces calling at the gate to hand-deliver a press release. Yes, those Popular Defence Forces. Yikes, as Shaggy would say.
- Having a mobile phone chat with Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, the founder of the Darfur rebel group the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) who refused to sign last year's Darfur Peace Agreement in Abuja and is, at the moment, refusing to turn up to next month's Darfur peace talks in Libya. (Read all about him refusing to sign in Abuja in Alex de Waal's article I will not sign.) 'He'll turn up to the talks,' said UN officials confidently during Ban Ki-Moon's visit last week. 'Oh no, I won't," he told me confidently the day after Ban Ki-Moon left.
- Discovering Khartoum's version of the Addis Ababa Sheraton. Just like Ethiopia's Sheraton, the Al Salam Rotana Hotel is a luxurious lump of marble set down in the middle of building sites and developing world city scenes. This is where UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stayed for $2,500 a night on his recent trip. Rather worryingly for Ban's security team, the hotel is right under the flight path of Khartoum airport. When I was there yesterday, a 747 passed no more than 40 feet above the roof. Just one little slip of the joystick...
- Finding out all about locusts, which have just invaded four regions of Sudan, including one area less that 60 miles north west of Khartoum. Did you know that one ton of locusts - a very, very small swarm - eats the same amount of food in one day as about 10 elephants or 25 camels or 2,500 people? Find out more at the UN FAO's Locust Watch website.
- Discovering that our local grocery store has branched out into stocking John le Carré novels alongside the pitta bread, dates and bottles of non-alcoholic beer. A major find given the fact that there are no good English bookshops here.
- Getting someone to install, repair and turn on our new generator (pictured) - a noisy Chinese machine with enough ooomph to power one air conditioner and one laptop. Invaluable when 42 degree heat coincides with a six-hour power cut - the situation as I type.
Posted by aheavens at September 9, 2007 3:09 PM