Escape From Sudan

Two old friends in Sudan fled for their lives this spring, separately, each powerless to aid the other's migration north to Egypt, where they both sought refuge. Adam left first, escaping Nyala, in southern Darfur, last April. Before he left, he said, he witnessed members of the government-supported Arab militias, called the Janjaweed, surround a village of Sudanese north of Nyala on their horses and set fire to the residents' straw huts, razing the place. Then he learned that Janjaweed fighters had killed his 31-year-old sister in the town of Kutum, in northern Darfur. Adam told his mother it was time for the family to go, so she gave him a gold necklace, currency for his journey. As his relatives headed west, for the refugee camps across the border in Chad, Adam sold his gold and bought a passport and his passage to Egypt. [more ]