"We're not seeing families arrive intact and together" - Nic Pyatt for Al Jazeera
Interviewer
Now, Nic Pyatt is the regional Africa director and Interim Sudan Head of The Nonviolent Peaceforce. She joins us from Kalehe in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Before we get into your experiences, just to explain to us the work of Nonviolent Peaceforce, what is it you guys actually do?
Pyatt
So we are an international organization that specializes in unarmed civilian protection. So that is working side by side with communities to build peace and to also improve their safety.
Interviewer
Now you've been doing work in Darfur when [where] people have been leaving El Fasher and coming [traveling] to safer areas, even though the road in between is not an easy road and it's a dangerous place for people to go. Just walk us through what you've been seeing, what you've been hearing from people that have actually successfully made the journey, because a lot of people have died along that way.
Pyatt
Yeah. And indeed the dangers of that journey are one of the main reasons why there were still so many people inside El Fasher when RSF took control. So what we are hearing from people who have managed to arrive to Tawila in safety is that along the road they've been subject to sexual assault, to detention, to torture, to extortion, robbery and looting. Many have spoken about how in the chaos of trying to escape, they've been separated from family members. They've also had to make the heartbreaking decisions to leave some of their family members and loved ones behind if they weren't strong enough to actually make the journey. It's 60 kilometres from El Fasher to Tawila on the most direct route and with very few vehicles and fuel available. For the most part, this is being done by on foot and through the night wherever possible.
Interviewer
Now, one of the most heartbreaking parts of this story that I was just reading earlier is the fact that there is a large amount of unaccompanied, unaccompanied minors, children that are taking that journey. You must, that must be harrowing for them.
Pyatt
It must be. It's beyond comprehension. The one thing that we're not seeing in Tawila is families arrive intact and together. The estimate from our community protection teams in Badinara- which is the new arrival centre- is at approximately 50%- so about 50% of the children that have come in in recent days are there without parents or without an adult caregiver. The journey for them, it absolutely is beyond what I can imagine, especially from what we're hearing of that journey and the fact that many children are either having to make it by themselves or they're being picked up by strangers who are trying to help them get to safety in the process.
Interviewer
Now, when they get to Tawila, the problems aren't over. The camp is overrun. It's, you know, creaking at the seams. It's not going to be able to take many more people as it comes. They're gonna need medical treatment. They're gonna need mental health treatment. All of that stuff is is is lacking in almost tragic proportions.
Pyatt
Yes, it very much is. Nonviolent Peaceforce alongside a number of other international organizations are trying our very best to provide food, to provide water, psychosocial support, medical care, shelter. But to be perfectly honest, the international community is overrun; Tawila itself had upwards of 600,000 internally displaced people already in it before this crisis. As a result of the war. It's also very hard to reach the humanitarian budget cuts this year have meant that people are not able to scale up the response as we would like and as is desperately needed.
Interviewer
Now, just a very quick question before I let you go, normal times, we've heard that the population of El Fasher is about 250,000. You've only seen about what 7,000 people reached there. So that means that there are still large numbers of people trapped in that city and we don't know their fate. Is that right?
Pyatt
Yeah, So a couple of days ago the figure was about 7,000 households. And to be perfectly honest we don't even know how many people were in El Fasher before RSF took over the siege and the long-standing communications blackout mean that numbers, the lowest number we had was 250,000. So quarter of a million people have been escaping along different routes, but for the majority they have been coming into Tawila and so the numbers just don't match up. It is it gives us significant indicator as to how many people are still trapped inside the city, how many have been killed trying to escape war in the city and how many are still stuck along the roads on their way to safety.
Interviewer
Nic Pyatt, thank you very much for taking us through all of that.
Pyatt
Thanks so much.