SENTINEL WATCH September 13, 2004 Issue

A bridge to Chad

By Tony Lobl

I have spent a lot of time in Chad recently. Not in person, but through the media. The large country's shared border with its troubled neighbor Sudan has guaranteed it a regular spot on the nightly news. Apart from these television pictures, I am a stranger to Chad. It's a long way from home, although I might have flown over it on my way to Southern Africa.

The Sudanese whose stories are bringing this country to the world's attention are involved in a different kind of flight: a desperate flight to Chad, to escape violent, government-backed Arab militiamen called Janjaweed. Chad is far from home for these people, despite their having crossed just a single border. The saying "so near, yet so far" is apt.

According to a recent BBC report, officials worry that if security doesn't improve in the western Sudanese province of Darfur, the refugees could remain in Chad "not weeks or months, but years." That's a very long way from home—chronologically speaking. The BBC report says of the Darfurians that they have suffered terribly, "but somehow life goes on."