By: John Jefferson
Warni – Somewhere in
the Middle of Nowhere
We first heard about this obscure village in the middle of
the southern mountains of South Kordofan over a year ago when the End Nuba
Genocide group was asked to reroute a planned mission to the area north of Yida
refugee camp. Given the time, logistics
and resources available to our small and nimble, but very constrained team, it
was impossible to pivot. The idea of
helping these people in one of the most remote portions of the Nuba Mountains
never left my mind and with the concurrence of the team, we decided the next
trip would be focused on these neediest of victims of Bashir’s plan of
eradication and removal.
As we drove to Warni from Kau, two things became very
apparent. The first was that no one was
living on the rich fertile plains between the two mountainous areas, at least
not recently. There were abandoned villages
along the road, but the fields lay fallow and except for the rare troop
movement, there was no traffic. We
didn’t even see herds of goats or cattle.
The land was desolate. I was
quickly informed that this was due to the triple threat of bombing raids,
militias and marauding cattle and goat herders that had terrorized the people
before the war and intensified their activities since its inception. Despite the fact that the SPLA-N had been
able to rid the area of enemies, the people were now sequestered in the
garrison towns for their own protection.
Thus, when we arrived at the “small” village, we were greeted by throngs
of people anticipating the first food distribution.
After meeting with
the local commander, we went out to observe the food distribution. Several sacks of sorghum that were purchased
in Malakal were on hand and as the people started queuing up, it was evident
that demand far exceeded the supply we had.
There were hundreds of kids and women coming out of seemingly nowhere
(many of the homes are in the rocks and trees, not too many compounds lie
outside the foothills of the mountains for security reasons). Hundreds of scoops of grain were put in every
kind of bag, dish, and receptacle one could imagine until about 1,000 lbs were
distributed. I realized how important it
was to have exceeded our own expectations of what we could make available by
joining with the Nuba relief organization, NRRDO. Together we were able to procure 46 tons of
food, which will be sorely needed in Warni and Kau-Niaro in the weeks to come.
One thing was
apparent about these people that have been subsisting on weeds, roots, and
insects for I don’t know how many months:
They are incredibly strong and resilient. No one was close to over weight (except me),
but everyone except the oldest and youngest appeared remarkably strong. Even those frighteningly thin. I realized that weakness is not an option in
a place where the sun mercilessly beats down all day, the threat of death from
opportunistic disease or hunger looms constantly, and at any time planes could
fly overhead and deliver a lethal dose of cluster bombs without concern for the
fact that they are being aimed at civilian targets. Beyond that, I saw a will to survive and
overcome these adversities in each and every one of the Nuba people. I could see it in their eyes and hear it in
their voices as I interviewed one after another about what was happening to
them and asked what they would like to tell the world. Stories about the bombings, lack of food,
desire for peace, and questions as to why the outside world seems to have
forgotten them, were shared with me over and over. All I could do was nod in sympathy and tell
them there were many who cared and were praying for them. I also let them know that we were going to
try and be their voice when we returned with the pictures and videos depicting
their plight. I saw disappointment and
even despair in some of them, but I never saw what I’d call a broken people.
No comments:
Post a Comment