31st August. My first day in Darfur. I was woken at 05:00 by the Islamic prayers coming from a mosque far away. This would become my daily wake-up call. My first breakfast was served with tea or coffee, and local bread with imported jam. I could not wait to visit the MSF clinic in the refugee camp and to know more about the actual situation of the refugees. After all, it seems that whenever Darfur is mentioned, the matter of the refugees must follow. The word "Dar" means homeland. So Darfur means homeland of the "Fur" tribe. It is one of the 26 States of Sudan, locating in the west bordering Chad, Libya and the Central African Republic. It is the size of France and was once home to 6 million people. Administratively it is divided into 3 regions, the North, the South and the West. Traditionally, the native African tribes were predominantly agriculturalist and settled, relying on the harvested crop during the rainy season. The Fur tribe belongs to this category. Whereas the Arab-speaking nomadic tribes were pastoralists, herding cattle and camels where grazing was possible and water existed. Since fertile lands were a livelihood of both tribes, minor disputes between them occurred. However, the tribal leaders traditionally solved these clashes. Then a new administrative structure introduced by the Central Government caused resentment in the tribes. Also, rebel groups against the Central Government began actions in 2001 in Darfur. In 2003, the conflict intensified. The Sudanese Government then called upon some local tribes to assist in fighting against the rebels. These nomadic tribes, mostly Arab, supplied with arms by the Government, began working alone as well as with the Government Army to fight the rebels. The civilian population called these armed nomads on horseback "Janjaweed". The armed conflicts soon evolved into looting and violence and killing in many villages, involving innocent people. Since, tens of thousands of people have died. More than 1.5 million people had been driven away from their homes and thus there are a lot of refugee camps for these internally displaced people in Darfur. However, my first morning in Darfur was to be spent in the MSF office. It seemed that I still had to wait to visit the clinic in refugee camp. Morning traffic was busy, with vehicles from various organizations, including UN and different NGOs, roaming on the roads. Local staff were already waiting in the office for transport to the clinic when the team arrived in our four-wheel-drive at 08:00. The native language in Darfur is Arabic while English is hardly spoken. The people were welcoming and I was greeted by many of them with big smiles. However, I didn't know how to respond using Arabic. I told myself that I needed to learn quickly. I had my briefing with the field coordinator on the project and the logistician on how to use the radio. HF and VHF radios were the most important mode of communication in the field. It's similar to pagers that doctors carry in the hospitals. All the expats and MSF cars were equipped with radios. There was a radio control room in the office manned by an operator 24 hours a day. Then something happened. Suddenly, information was quickly exchanged in the field. World Food Program (WFP) was to carry out registration in a refugee camp that day. Normally, refugees in the camp had to register in order to qualify for receiving food and non-food items such as soap. In the past however, some refugees might have registered more than once and were able to receive more items than usual. That's the reason behind re-doing the registration. But of course there were people who didn't like it, especially those who were already receiving more. So what had happened before was when re-registration took place, some clashes and violence broke out. Therefore, when the team heard about this sudden piece of information, we were all on alert. Contingency plans were devised in case of violence and people being injured. Staff were dispatched to the outskirts of the refugee camp to look out for any unusual activity. The normal MSF clinic activities had to stop. Wound dressing sets, wound suturing sets, intravenous fluids and medicines were quickly checked and restocked. Radio communications were exchanged constantly and regularly to update on the latest situation. Other NGOs were also contacted for more current information. The atmosphere was tense, and only time would tell if anything happened. Three hours into the registration process, nothing happened. So we took a deep breath and relaxed. I was excited by the whole exercise. Maybe it's just the first of many dramas in the weeks to come. Arthur

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