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Mansur, Age 10


Mansur’s photo and story are from www.teamdarfur.org/stories

Ten-year-old Mansur (center) likes to draw. On the wall of his room there is a drawing of the destruction of his village, his last memory of Darfur.

After fleeing their village, Mansur and his family walked across the desert to make it to a camp in Eastern Chad, where they now live as refugees. They have one tent and the small mud room that is Mansur’s home.

Mansur wants to be a doctor when he grows up, and he loves to play soccer, when he and friends can find a good ball.


Aljafis, Age 9

Aljafis’s photo and story are from www.teamdarfur.org/stories

9 year old Aljafis is a serious looking boy, but he smiled after seeing himself in a picture. He lives in the refugee camp with his mother and siblings.

Militiamen killed his father when they destroyed his village.
Aljafis goes to school, where he is crammed in to small rooms and sits on sand floors.

He makes his own racecars out of plastic bottles. Aljafis and his friends also make their own soccer balls out of rags and anything else they can bunch up together.


Farha, Age 15


Farha’s photo and story are from www.teamdarfur.org/stories

Fifteen-year-old Farha (in the middle) and her sisters were able to escape when their village in Darfur was destroyed. Their father was not as lucky. They don’t know what happened to a brother either, since he was separated from them at the time of the attack.

The mother and the daughters walked twenty-five days across the desert to make it to a refugee camp.

Farha's mother went back in to Darfur looking for her son, and the daughters have not seen her in weeks.

Farha likes to get together with friends to tell stories about how life used to be in Darfur. She also likes to play volleyball, which is the sport of preference for all the girls in the camps.

Ahmed, Age 5


Ahmed’s photo and story are from www.teamdarfur.org/stories

Ahmed (pictured far right) is in the second grade.

When he was just five years old, his uncle was killed in an attack on their village. The one thing he remembers about that day is the fear he saw in his elders and his parents, a fear that he did not expect from his protectors.

Over eight people were killed that day. Luckily, after the attacks, him and his family were able to escape to Jabal Mastaria. For three weeks they stayed on that mountain until they were finally able to make their way to the Mastaria valley where many other villages had gathered.

Nur, Age 9

Nur’s drawing and story are fromhttp://www.hrw.org/photos/2005/darfur/drawings/index.htm

Nur: This is my brother. He is hiding in Sudan. He is not happy.

Human Rights Watch: Why?

Nur: He wants to learn, to go to school, but he has nothing. Our school was burned.

Taha, Age 13 or 14


Taha’s drawing and story are from http://www.hrw.org/photos/2005/darfur/drawings/index.htm

In the afternoon we returned from school and saw the planes. We were all looking, not imagining about bombing.

Then they began the bombing. The first bomb [landed] in our garden, then four bombs at
once in the garden.

The bombs killed six people, including a young boy, a boy carried by his mother, and a girl. In another place in the garden a women was carrying her baby son—she was killed, not him.

Now my nights are hard because I feel frightened. We became homeless. I cannot forget the bad images of the burning houses and fleeing at night because our village was burned…


Mohammed (Age 8), Gamal (12), and Anwar (10)


Gamal and Anwar’s drawing and Mohammed’s story are from
http://www.hrw.org/photos/2005/darfur/drawings/index.htm

Mohammed, 8 years old, could not draw. He had never been to school. He could not read or write his name. These drawings were made by his brother and cousin.

In the smallest voice, he said, “I am still scared of the Janjaweed. I remember the guns and the planes.”

The last thing he said to Human Rights Watch researchers was, “Darigi jugi,”—“I need to go back home.”

Magda, Age 9


Magda’s drawing and story are from http://www.hrw.org/photos/2005/darfur/drawings/index.htm

“There was a plane.

This is the village burning.

We took some water and were running.

This Janjaweed came and took our camel away. I saw him. We ran to the wadi [riverbed, or oasis], and we climbed into atree to hide.

Then we ran in the night.”

Magda’s mother, Khadijah, added, “If we can go back to Sudan, that would be good, but we have no home. Our village was burned to the ground.”