As fighting continues to rock Sudan, Solidarités International was the first NGO to enter West Darfur and the town of el-Geneina last week. The inhabitants of this city have paid a heavy price for the war, which started on April 15, with 70% of the city having been burned, according to the organization, and in a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
Specialized in the field of water sanitation, the organization Solidarités international was able to enter the capital of Western Darfur, where it found a catastrophic reality. Justine Musik Piquemal, who leads the team of this NGO, ” did not see a body either on the road or in the city “, while local officials of the city evoke more than 5,000 inhabitants deadbut whose bodies are said to have been cleaned up after littering the streets until a week ago.
According to her, more than 120 000 refugees who were sheltered in schools or administrative buildings find themselves homeless, especially after fighting ” extremely violent between the RSF (Rapid Support Paramilitary Forces (commanded by the general known as “Hemedti” – Editor’s note), FAS (Sudanese Armed Forces – Editor’s note) and Arab militias and Masalit militias in the city “.
We, Solidarité International, did not see any bodies either on the road or in the town, so we did not witness this live. Indeed, the fighting was extremely violent. We know this because we met refugees, who number more than 80,000, so people did not leave for nothing. We met our Sudanese teams, our neighbours, who were very happy to finally have an international NGO arriving in el-Geneina. The fact of coming to demonstrate that we could get back on the road and that we could also now go back to work, gives a glimmer of hope to all this population, which therefore has no more water, no more electricity, no more to eat. There is no telephone network, so they are somewhat cut off from the world. Being able to come to them gave the people we met some hope that there would be drinking water and food that would be distributed soon.
the head of Solidarités international Justine Muzik Piquemal Justine Muzik Piquemal talks about a catastrophic situation in al-Geneina
The UN has recently expressed concern about possible ” crimes against humanity in Darfur. The town of al-Genaïna, West Darfur, experienced very heavy fighting. But Justine Musik Piquemal was above all struck by the silence that dominates the city.
The silence is very impressive, there is no noise, people don’t speak: they whisper. There are very few people in the street, and we know that there are still inhabitants since we distribute drinking water and we know that there are huge queues at our distribution, because we are far from covering all the needs. But when you come back from al-Geneina, it’s silence. There is no noise, there is no noise at all. So despite the fact that there are military pick-ups or people walking a bit in the street, it’s extremely quiet, it’s very impressive. I wrote, not so long ago, on my LinkedIn that the war made no noise. I repeat it once again, this silence is extremely heavy in the city.=
Upon entering el-Geneina, the head of Solidarités international Justine Muzik Piquemal was struck by the silence in the city
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