Word: tawila
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...cease-fire might mark a turning point in Sudan's bloodletting. But the calm broke on Nov. 23--a long day full of just the kind of killing, hypocrisy and indifference that have defined the conflict since it began in February 2003. First, rebel fighters attacked police stations in Tawila. In response, a government plane bombed the town, forcing dozens of aid workers to flee. To date, most of the violence, which has killed tens of thousands of people and left more than 2 million homeless, has been carried out by members of the Janjaweed, an Arab militia that...
...Soon she will be joined by others from Tawila. Once a bustling caravan stop, Tawila is now a ghost town, the vast majority of its 55,000 inhabitants having fled. They dot the road to Al Fashir, on donkey and on foot, desperate to cover the 40 miles of desert scrub before their food runs out or they are attacked. Those that remain are too old or sick or poor to leave, and food is running short...
...refugee camp that operated on the outskirts of Tawila, less than 50 of the town's 515 families remain. Dead cattle, their teeth bared in final agony, litter the camp, and residents scrounge the looted food depots for spilled flour and grain or forage the wasteland for something to eat. "We will have to stay because we don't have the money to go anywhere else," says Babakir Abdullah Abdurahim, a displaced man. "We are very hungry. Tell them to bring us food," he pleads...
...Even though the Sudanese Army reclaimed Tawila the day after the rebel attacks, the remaining civilians don't feel any safer. Far from protecting them, the townspeople say they are again the soldiers' prey. "They have treated the people in a bad way," says one man. "They beat us, they harass us, they take our things." And sometimes they rape...
...Maka, it is still too early to return to her store. She has spread a blanket on the ground under a market stall displaying her okra and onions. She has three young children and has lived her whole life in Tawila, but her husband works in Libya and she is determined to leave. "I cannot live here anymore," she says, "I am shamed. Will my husband want me when he returns?" For Maka, the question needs no answer. She says she will gather her children and cross the desert footpaths to Al Fashir...