Former Ochlockonee Bay Resident Offers Relief in Sudan

Bill Catalina, a former resident of Ochlockonee Bay, is currently flying for the UN World Food Program in Sudan.  The following letter was written by Bill in hopes that he could help us better understand what is actually happening there.

Letter from Bill Catalina; received February 10, 2009:

I've been coming to Africa off and on for the past 22 years, mostly flying for oil companies and governments.  My first experience with the volatility of Africa was in 1989 in T’Chad.  Thirteen fellow ESSO employees aboard a UTA  flight from T’Chad’s capital of N’Jemena to Paris exploded over the Niger desert from a bomb planted by terrorists.  (Pictured at right:  Bill Catalina with Governor of Bahr-el-Ghazal State)

This is my first experience with relief organizations and the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).  Sudan is the largest country in Africa and is considered a permanent mission by the UN which has been in-country for 30 years.

Sudan is not the Africa that tourists experience and for good reason.  It is a harsh, arid, wind blown land of relatively gentle people, some of whom are driven to extremes by a ruthless government dominated by Muslim extremists in the North‘s capital city of Khartoum.  Juba is the capital of mostly Christian South Sudan.

Sudan was divided in two by a vicious civil war in the early 1990s.  Today, separately from the Darfur situation, there is a shaky cease fire that gets violated quite often especially in the oil rich and disputed border areas between North and South Sudan.  About 80% of the oil is in South Sudan with estimated reserves larger than Saudi Arabia.  This will make for some touchy negotiations when reconciliation talks to rejoin the Muslim North and Christian South resume in 2011.  War is looming with no breaks for the innocent.

{sidebar id=1}Many of the world’s aid organizations are here from Medicines sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) to the Int'l. Red Cross, Oxfam, CARE, USAID, etc.  Most aid people are dedicated and making very little money (if any) in return.  Really getting into the bush, getting down and I do mean dirty. Spending quality time in desolate locations with the poorest people on earth & in some instances, in some very dangerous situations.

The recent quote below is from a UN ATO (Air Transport Officer) friend of mine working in El Fasher, Darfur State in North Sudan.  You will not hear this news on CNN, Reuters or Al Jeezera simply because the Muslim Khartoum government keeps a very tight lid on everything happening in Darfur state.  They want no complications.  Photo ops are strictly forbidden unless authorized with a government agent on scene.  The word “fun” used below, is used facetiously.

"Life in Fasher has been quite interesting.  You're missing all the fun.  They were bombing with the Antonovs about 10 km from here.  We could hear and feel the attacks they were that close.  The attack heli's were going non-stop.  The military took over the airport and kicked us all out for 2 days. Ahhhh.... life in the desert.  Things seem to be relatively back to normal here but Nyala's local flights have not be allowed to fly for the last couple of days.  We've had a MIG29 flying about for the last 2 days.  Not the Chinese one.... the REAL honest-to-goodness Top Gun MIG.  We shall see where this goes."

Bear in mind that a Russian Antonov 12" is not a bomber (pictured at left).  It is a four engine cargo plane.  The bombs are rolled out the rear cargo ramp!  This makes for a very inaccurate bombing run.  You can imagine the death and destruction to the innocent, desperate civilians caught under those poorly aimed bombs.  Working for the Muslim Khartoum government, the Russian mercenary pilots running these flights, if shot down and caught, are subject to a quick execution by the rebels they're bombing... if they're lucky.  They live in Khartoum for their own safety.

In less than 10 months, 11 aid workers have been killed, 260 vehicles hijacked, 190 staff abducted and 35 convoys ambushed.  The North Sudan government itself hinders UN operations by making it difficult to obtain visas and work permits for Darfur.

Darfur is composed of 3 states; North, South & Western Darfur.  Western Darfur is on Sudan’s western border with T’Chad.

The refugees from neighboring T'Chad's civil insurrection and Sudan's ongoing turmoil are concentrated on the border between T'Chad and Sudan in western Darfur State.  Darfur is controlled by militias called Janjaweeds, meaning Evil Horsemen.  They've graduated to trucks now with heavy caliber machine guns mounted on top.  The Janjaweeds are Muslim North Sudan government controlled and are used to quell uprisings from the anti-government Christian rebels in the Darfur area.  The North Sudan government denies this collaboration with the Janjaweed militias.  We know different.  As usual, the refugees are caught in the middle.

Most of the vitamin enriched food given by the U.S. and other UN contributing countries and intended for Darfurian refugees is sold internationally for huge profits by the North Sudanese government.  It is replaced by inferior quality, bug infested Sudanese grown wheat and sorghum products and given to the refugees.  Some of it is hijacked and confiscated by militias and rebels and sold for their profit.  Mostly it's about greed, same the world over and business as usual in bush Africa.

Click here to view a photo gallery taken in September 2008 by Bill Catalina.

This article originally published on February 11, 2009.

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mkwestmark

 

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