A Safe Haven in Darfur

By WFP USA Published on June 26, 2009

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Nebila, 25, has lived in Otash camp in South Darfur for almost two years. (WFP/Luc Lampriere)

An attack on Nebila Hussein Mohamed’s village in the Djebel Mara Mountains in Darfur forced her to leave home. Her husband was killed, but she was able to escape with their 14 month-old son just as their hut was set on fire.

She walked for two weeks in search of safety before arriving at Otash, a camp for displaced people near Nyala in South Darfur. Unfortunately, her son did not survive the journey. “He died on the road because there was no water for him to drink,” she says.

At age 25, Nebila has received food assistance from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) at Otash camp for over two years. “I cannot go back home,” she says. Nebila is still too afraid to even leave the camp to collect firewood. If the WFP food distribution stops, she will have nowhere else to go to find anything to eat, she insists.

Darfur is the largest humanitarian emergency in the world. In 2009, WFP aims to provide food assistance to 3.8 million conflict-affected people in Darfur, Sudan.