Influx of displaced flood South Darfur

Adam Ibriham Osman was clearly worried.

His dark eyes squinting against the midday sun and a whipping desert wind, the old man told how his village had fled en masse from marauding fighters and how some forty families had found their way to the edge of this fast-growing camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), about 11 miles south of South Darfur's capital, Nyala.

His group of well over a hundred had already waited six days to register at the camp and food was running dangerously short.

"We need help," he said, looking at the dozens of uprooted neighbors and relatives surrounding him. "We all need help."

Osman and those who had traveled with him on an odyssey that began from their home village of Gohz Karbi, about 100 miles south of here, are part of a new influx of IDPs that has swollen the population of Al Salaam by several thousand since the beginning of this year. Earlier this week (Feb. 26th), hundreds of exhausted new arrivals, including Osman and his fellow villagers waited quietly in the shade of near-by trees to be registered by camp authorities—the key first step to getting food. Their presence left little doubt the camp's growth would not likely end soon. Read more >>>