World Vision Canada president, Dave Toycen, recently returned from Darfur, Sudan, where nomadic fighters have killed thousands and displaced millions of people. Here, he shares his reflections following a visit to Otash Camp, home to more than 30,000 internally displaced people.

Photo by Philip Maher

At the World Vision health clinic at Otash Camp, I met 12-year-old Tayeba Hassan. She was carrying her two-year-old brother, Faisal Heder, to the simple, woven-grass structure to be weighed. His skinny limbs and rust-coloured hair are signs of serious malnutrition. He will continue to need supplementary feeding.

Tayeba herself is quite healthy physically, but emotionally she is traumatized. A group of men attacked her village, setting fire to homes and stealing animals. In the mayhem, her uncle was killed. Her family walked for two days to reach this camp and they won't return home, she tells me, until they're certain it's safe.

Tayeba's family isn't alone. More than two million people have left their homes and are dependent on food aid at camps all across the country. Though they'd like to return home to plant and reap their own harvests, they have no trust in the Sudanese government who, they believe, actually encouraged nomadic fighters to attack them.

So, they continue to stay at these overcrowded and squalid camps where they rely on outside aid just to survive. The prospects for the future are grim: the UN estimates that not only will 2.5 million displaced people need food aid in 2005, but that 50 per cent of people who live outside of the camps will need it as well.

Caring for desperate and hungry people is a critical first step. But it is not enough. Many countries, both inside and outside of Africa, are pressuring the Sudanese government and the rebel groups to come to the peace table. The greatest concern is that ongoing fighting could escalate into a full-scale civil war. What the region desperately needs is an end to the fighting and a lasting ceasefire.

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