Aid Worker Fears 'Disaster of Biblical Proportions' in Darfur
March 31, 2006 — -- Matthew McGarry has spent a year crisscrossing West Darfur with food and aid to help the victims of a government-supported campaign of rape, killing, looting and destruction. Unless the situation improves quickly, he fears he may have only delayed their horrible fate.
Not only has violence flared up again, hindering humanitarian aid but the conflict has spilled into neighboring Chad. To make matters worse, money is running short after a year wracked with international crises.
"If there is no progress or a solution or relief funds dry out, all the work that went in keeping people alive is going to vanish," said McGarry, a 27-year-old relief coordinator for Catholic Relief Services.
Sunburnt but Saving Lives
He fears a "disaster of biblical proportions" unless more people pay attention to this parched corner of Africa.
Over the last three years, about 3 million people have fled their homes and nearly 200,000 people have died as Sudan's government and pro-government Arab militias have attacked, pillaged and raped the black African population in what many have called genocide.
McGarry's mission involved finding pockets of people trickling back to Darfur to help them get back on their feet. The situation was much more dire than that.
"I have been to more countries than states, but nothing prepared me for this," he said.
"I was surrounded by human misery. It's like going back several centuries in time with a landscape that resembles the moon."He likened the scorching lunar surroundings to having a spotlight shine on one's head all day, everyday and the sand mixed in with the swarm of flies to a second skin.
In one instance, he stumbled across people in a village called Goz Diga living in shelters made of twigs, eating bark and berries with no way to store water. It was a matter of days before they would die.
With the help of other aid organizations, blond-haired McGarry dispatched food and large, plastic water containers, along with soap, blankets and mosquito nets. Within a month, people had proper shelter and had access to seeds to start planting crops.
"An experience like that makes it worthwhile," he said, although he admitted that at times he wondered if he could deal with more tire problems with his Land Cruiser or another "bone chip" infested meal.
Progress Shot to Hell?
Halfway through McGarry's year in Darfur, the territory was awash with weapons, while rebel factions kept feuding and militias began to pursue aid organizations.
"Before it was simple banditry with cell phones and computers being stolen. But over the past six months, there has been a spike with NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and the U.N. targeted," he said.
On Wednesday, a U.N. staffer died after an attack on a refugee compound in Southern Sudan.
McGarry says that he has never ran into ambushes or been attacked, but that the lack of security kept him from traveling. Most aid organizations have stopped their deliveries.
"It was by far the most heartbreaking, especially after I spent eight months in communities building some positive relationships," he said.
The United Nations is slated to take over the peacekeeping mission in the fall from the African Union, which has been outmanned and outgunned in Darfur, in the hopes of finalizing a peace agreement.
McGarry believes the warring parties will have to have strong incentives to negotiate a settlement if the conflict is to be resolved.
"In order for things to get better, it will take political pressure from the United States and Europe on the various rebel factions, informal tribal militias, and the Sudanese government," he said.
For that to happen, he believes more people must be made aware of the disaster in Darfur.
"We must give a voice to people who are voiceless," he said. "They would do the same if they could."