Darfur in extremis
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Darfur Trembles as Peacekeepers’ Exit Looms –front page headline, New York Times 9/10/06
“What happened in Rwanda, it will happen here,” said Sheik Abdullah Muhammad Ali, who fled here [a squalid refugee camp] from a nearby village seeking the safety that he hoped the presence of about 200 African Union peacekeepers would bring. But the Sudanese government has asked the African Union to quit Darfur rather than hand over its mission to the United Nations. “If these soldiers leave,” Sheik Ali said, “we will all be slaughtered.”
“We beg the international community, somebody, come and save us,” Sheik Ali said. “We have no means to protect ourselves. The only thing we can do is run and hide in the mountains and caves. We will all die.”
