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Twenty years after genocide began in the region, recent conflict and targeted violence have forced over 5 million people to flee their homes across Sudan in just five months. In Darfur, non-Arab unarmed civilians have been hunted down and massacred, according to eyewitnesses and survivors. Women and girls have been subjected to systematic rape, sexual violence and trafficking.
With genocide and crimes against humanity once again taking place and so little international attention, one wonders if the international community has completely turned its back on a decades-old commitment to protect civilians from mass atrocities, known as the “responsibility to protect.”
- adjunct professor of genocide studies and human rights at the University of Connecticut @ TheConversation
My question is, has anyone working in cause-prioritization looked at the situation and possible creative interventions? (Or is EA once again too funding-constrained to even consider working in areas like this?)
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I have a professional background in this and even that is telling me that this is a wait and see thing. However what we can do is look at what aid agencies are doing.
This is not a neglected area generally. Agencies like catholic charities, UN World Food Program(WFP) and other similar ones can and will set up Internally displaced person camps(IDP) - (camps in country)- or Refugee camps - (outside of country).
In this area, the African Union is strong and they would be the lead element of any type of foreign aid, perhaps with coalition partners like America, Italy, Germany, Japan, etc.
But let's back this up. Let's say that you're a resident of Darfur. Your country borders Chad, the CAR and South Sudan. You have a spouse and children and the means to leave(a car? a plane ticket?) Where would you go? Perhaps to Ethiopia? Drive through Chad to Nigeria? What are you willing to risk to do it? Will you walk hundreds of miles to get to a camp that you're not sure will be there?
What would you need? Water, food, shelter, etc. Camps would get that.
Now what could you individually do? You could donate money to an organization or sponsor the Visa of a Sudanese refugee.
If you knew someone who had a plane/pilot service you could arrange a flight to pick up refugees and move them out of country. Someone I work with did this to get his translators and their families out of Afghanistan.
If you had logistical skills? You could go work for WFP or one of the aid agencies.
Can you drive/maintain a bus? You can figure out a way to help out with this.
Do you speak arabic? The camps will need translators. Do you speak arabic, english and another language? Even better.
I love the idea of creative interventions. I do. There are aid agencies on the ground with experienced people to do this the way they have been doing it for a while.
If I was looking or a creative intervention that would get me shot, I'd buy a plot of land in Ethiopia or Chad and setup a refugee camp, with aid stations leading to it. That's a lot of money though and that's a short term plan.
I would start by asking agencies working in the area them what their pain points are. They might have trouble with funding, staffing, etc. That would direct my next steps.