By Louis Charbonneau
ZAM ZAM CAMP, Sudan (Reuters) - Markets stocked with freshfruit and vegetables. Shiny new gas stations. Freshly builthouses. Smooth paved roads. A pizzeria.
These are not images one would normally associate withSudan's western Darfur region, where hundreds of thousands ofpeople are estimated to have died in five years of conflict.But they are all found in El Fasher, capital of North Darfurstate.
El Fasher is home to thousands of civilian and militarypersonnel working for the United Nations-African Union jointpeacekeeping mission (UNAMID), and while food here isplentiful, prices are inflated after poor harvests.
The United Nations says a "perfect storm" of growingviolence, overcrowding in refugee camps and bad harvests couldcause a food crisis in Darfur, home to the world's largesthumanitarian operation.
Just 10 km from El Fasher's colourful market stalls,thousands of displaced Darfuris struggle to survive in the ZamZam camp, battling disease, bandits and growing hunger.
These people used to get over 2,000 calories a day. Nowthey survive on 1,400 calories as aid agencies cut rationsbecause of attacks on food convoys. Some of the children havebloated bellies, a possible sign of malnutrition.
Eric Reeves, a Darfur activist and professor of literatureat Smith College in Massachusetts who has studied Sudan fornearly a decade, warns that ration cuts may cause "significanthuman starvation in the coming months."
International experts say at least 200,000 people have diedin Darfur since 2003 when mainly non-Arab rebels took up armsagainst Khartoum. Another 2.5 million have been left homeless.
Khartoum puts the number of victims at 10,000.
There is little hope of a political breakthrough to allowthe people at Zam Zam, some of whom have been in the camp foryears, to return home.
Stalled peace talks were dealt another blow last month whenthe rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) attacked a suburbof Khartoum. Top U.N. and AU envoys have said an internationalsummit should be called to put pressure on the parties to comeback to the negotiating table.
LAND OF CONTRASTS
Darfur can seem a land of contrasts and contradictions.
In places, it is barren, a lunar-like terrain with just theoccasional tree or bush. But suddenly green trees and wideswathes of fertile soil appear.
This is a land where U.S. officials say "genocide in slowmotion" is taking place, a charge Sudan denies. It is also aland where foreign peacekeepers complain of being bored.
When a U.N. delegation visited Zam Zam in June, it cameface-to-face with misery: a child holding up his hands forfood; a 35-year-old widow talking of how she struggles to feedher eight children; a woman speaking haltingly about a gangrape.
But Sudan's Ambassador to the United Nations, AbdalmahmoudAbdalhaleem, says Zam Zam is "a five-star camp".
Emilia Casella, a spokeswoman for the U.N.'s World FoodProgram in Khartoum, says 62,000 live here in rudimentaryshelters made of mud, thatch and sheets of plastic. They fledtheir homes to escape Sudanese Armed Forces and pro-governmentmostly Arab militia known as Janjaweed.
A senior U.N. police officer from Nigeria, whose job it isto patrol the camp and protect the people from bandits andrebel recruiters, estimates there are 52,000 in the camp.
What is not in doubt is the fact that these lives lived inlimbo are becoming more precarious.
Attacks on WFP convoys and frequent clashes betweenSudanese and Chadian forces along Sudan's western border haveforced the U.N. agency to cut rations in half for Darfur, anarea the size of France where it fed some 2.7 million people inApril alone, out of a total population of 6 million.
Sudanese government promises of escorts for aid trucks haveoften not materialized, and diplomats in New York, speaking oncondition of anonymity, fear Khartoum does not care.
This has made life harder for Fatimah, the 35-year-oldmother of eight who has been in Zam Zam camp for four years.
She tells reporters that even before rations were cut, shedid not get enough to feed her children.
When the U.N. delegation arrived, the former vegetablefarmer held up a sign with a drawing of helicopters gunningpeople down and the words "No for war, yes for peaces."
PROTECTION
WFP's Casella said rations would be cut again in July asthe agency had been unable to improve distribution. At any onetime, she said, there are 800 to 1,000 trucks on the roads ofDarfur, carrying food relief.
"We need to deliver 1,800 metric tonnes of food into ourvarious Darfur warehouses each day. But, we're only managing900 metric tons or less, lately," she said.
"The issue is that the banditry has slowed the truckturnaround time. Many drivers are wary of travelling on theroads unescorted. They have to wait for police escorts(mandated by the authorities) and in some areas these policeescorts are only moving once a week," she said by e-mail fromKhartoum.
Further hampering aid agencies, funding shortfalls have ledthe WFP to cut back its helicopter and plane flights around theregion, where seasonal rains make many roads impassable.
UNAMID peacekeepers sometimes escort convoys but a lack oftroops and helicopters make it impossible to protect them all.
Only 9,000 troops out of a planned 26,000-strong UNAMIDforce are on the ground in Darfur.
Full deployment is a long way off, due to Khartoum'sinsistence that most troops come from African countries andU.N. bureaucratic requirements.
The United Nations hopes UNAMID will be at 80 percent offull strength by the end of the year, but diplomats in New Yorksay this will be very difficult to achieve.
At UNAMID headquarters in El Fasher, there is a sense offrustration.
"We don't do very much," one peacekeeper told Reuters oncondition of anonymity. "I'm not sure what we're doing here."
Would they be willing to do more to protect food convoys tomake sure the people in nearby Zam Zam get fed? Yes, they say.
(Editing by Clar Ni Chonghaile)
