Chad: Gunman Kill Aid Worker
Save the Children, an aid organization, said it was suspending work in Chad after gunmen opened fire on a convoy in eastern Chad near the Sudanese border, killing one of its workers. The employee, Pascal Marlinge, was French and worked for Save the Children in Britain, the organization said.
It was not immediately known who shot at the convoy. Eastern Chad has become a zone of uprooted refugees from Sudan’s Darfur region who spill across the border. Displaced Chadians, humanitarian groups and European Union peacekeepers work in the area, and Sudan has been hostile to the peacekeeping mission, which has not yet been fully staffed.
This is a ridiculous news story. How people can be this hostile towards peacekeeping and aid organizations is beyond me. I understand that those who shot probably don’t want them there anyway, but really I feel like this situation has not changed in the 15 weeks I’ve been covering it. It is the same redundant ignorance of not being willing to come to agreements or just to “agree to disagree” which is a stupid cliché but that is unfortunately what I think needs to happen. These conflicts are being fought over trite issues, not according to them, and I realize I am writing this in the heat of reaction but it is unfortunate that I see no end in sight to this until those with guns finally find a reason to put those guns down.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/world/africa/02briefs-GUNMENKILLAI_BRF.html?ref=africa
1 comment:
Although I have not been following this issue for the past fifteen weeks, I do agree with you that it is really messed up to fire on aid and humanitarian workers trying to help out. Hopefully the situation in Chad will improve and/or the international community will take actions to ensure that aidworkers on the ground are adequately protected.
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