A working visit to Chad’s refugee camps for the people of Western Darfur

In 2004 at least 200 000 people from Darfur in Western Sudan are thought to have died in a wave of what has been alleged to have been ethnic cleansing (Flint & De Waal, 2008). And in April 2008 it was reported that a total of over 300 000 people might have died in the (then) 5-year Darfur conflict. During the period of the alleged genocide, nearly a quarter of a million refugees (Central Intelligence Agency, 2009) crossed the nearby border into Chad, where they remain in a dozen or so camps looked after by the United Nations and international aid organisations. These camps are strung along the frontier, in remote semi-desert locations that are sustainable only with United Nations support. Many of the camps no longer take new refugees, and are in effect transplanted communities from nearby Darfur, their social and leadership structures mirroring those of the communities that were torn apart by war. Even place names have been transplanted, to suggest a kind of normality.