Edit: Originally sent to our mailing list on 16 June, 2008.

Hello Friends and Familia:

We are starting our second week in Chad, and for the first time in five trips we might not be able to visit a refugee camp. When we left camp Kounoungo this past January, our friend Yakoub told us that the people in his camp felt motivated by our trips and felt proud that we continued to come back. They feel connected to not just us, but to the communities that support them in the US and other countries.

Yakoub and other refugees are so grateful for the aid they receive to keep them alive, but they regain hope and energy when they hear the messages, see the faces, and learn the names of those that are doing selfless work every day to bring peace to Darfur. That “building of community” across continents is priceless. The i-ACT team remains committed to this.

We are in Abeche, in Eastern Chad, unable to move because of heavy fighting in the area. We will continue to report on the situation and how it affects aid work and the lives of the hundreds of thousands of displaced people. We will post video, when there is something visually worth posting. Otherwise, we will continue with journals, reports, and answering any comments and questions that you post on our blog. Click here to read our reports from Abeche.

Thank you for staying involved and for being one of those faces and names that Yakoub says he feels proud to know.

Paz,
Gabriel
for Katie-Jay, Colin, and Scott,
i-ACT Team in Abeche, Chad.

An alliance of Chadian rebel groups has launched a fresh offensive to overthrow the government of Chadian president Idriss Deby. The rebels requested mediation by France and the EU as a precursor to avert war, but their request was not accepted. Beginning from positions in Eastern Chad near the border with Sudan, they have advanced westwards towards the Chadian capital, N’djamena. On Saturday June 14, the rebels attacked and took control of the town of Goz-Beida. They withdrew later in the day, but promised further confrontation on Sunday. An EUFOR force deployed in Goz-Beida, comprising 500 Irish and 70 Dutch troops, has been protecting civilians and aid workers in the area. Camps surrounding Goz-Beida house 15,000 refugees and 36,000 internally displaced Chadians. The i-ACT team was about to travel to Goz-Beida from Abeche, when travel restrictions put in place meant the journey had to be cancelled. They are currently waiting at a safe location in Abeche as the situation unfolds.

To see the location of Goz-Beida, Abeche and N’djamena on a map, click here (scroll west to see N’djamena).

News reports about the situation:

Chad rebels say on offensive and seek French mediation (Thursday June 12)

EU troops increase patrols in Chad security alert (Friday June 13)

Chad rebels say they are advancing, threaten French forces (Friday June 13)

Chad rebels attack town, EU troops come under fire (Saturday June 14)

Your messages of love and activism that we share with refugees often bring tears and smiles to the faces of our friends who have suffered for five years. It is your words and images that provide them with the essential human connection that gets lost in the isolated desert. Without your messages, they would lose hope all together.Please leave a comment below for our friends in the camps, and we will pass them on each day. Our field team will check back daily for message to share with the refugees they meet.

In i-ACT tradition, we’ll be hosting the i-ACT challenge again! i-ACT is all about action, so every day we hope the stories from the camps will inspire everyone to take part in our daily actions. We’d like to show our appreciation to all i-ACTivists who follow Gabriel, Katie-Jay, Scott and Colin on their journey and participate in the daily actions. When you watch the video daily, one of the words in the action will be in BOLD. That word will only remain bold on that day, so write it down and keep it somewhere safe! At the end of i-ACT 5, submit your list of words to us by sending an e-mail to challenge@stopgenocidenow.org for a chance to win autographed Bonnie Raitt Darfur hats! We’ll also be sending everyone paritcipating an i-ACTivist e-certificate.

We look forward to your entries!

After going through the usual last-minute hustle and bustle before any trip (which included the usual pick-up at Fry’s Electronics for more equipment), Katie-Jay and Gabriel left Los Angeles last night on their way to Chad.

We wish them a safe journey!

I’ve told you “we’re going back” three times in the past, but this one is a little different. The last time we left Chad after our visits to the refugee camps in the east, we left on a French military plane, being evacuated in the middle of an all out coup attempt that left an already unstable country and region in even worse conditions.

Soon after, the Sudanese government attacked Darfuri villages, displacing tens of thousands of more civilians. This was in February 2008. Of the over 13,000 that reached the border between Chad and Darfur, 8,000 are still sitting in the desert, waiting to be transferred to camp Mile, according to UNHCR. The insecurity has stopped the transfers indefinitely.

Services have been reduced and interrupted at almost all of the camps in Chad. Chadian security officers working at the camps have been attacked and killed, and humanitarian aid workers have been targets. Our friends in the camps, mostly women and children, continue to live the life of a refugee—but the life of a refugee in grave danger.

We are returning after ourselves having been in some danger. That also makes it different. Our experience at the hotel in N’Djamena had an effect on Katie-Jay and I and on all the people around us. We are not taking this lightly. We will take all precautions possible and will make decision based on the best information from experts on the ground.

We want to continue putting a face on the numbers and allowing the voice of the victims to be heard. The innocent civilians of Darfur need immediate protection, and sovereignty cannot be an excuse for inaction from the entire world.

Join us for i-ACT, staring June 10th and for twelve consecutive days of webcasts, interactive blog, and opportunities for action. Scott Warren, the outgoing National Director of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, and Colin O’Brien, who served as the National High School Outreach Coordinator for STAND, will be going with us on the journey. Students have been the leaders of the Darfur movement, and we are looking for students and their communities to increase the heat and raise the noise this summer to bring peace to Darfur.

Paz,
Gabriel

I’m sitting at my dining room table walking through many of the same steps that I did prior to our last trip in January/February 2008: sending emails, writing the daily action items, scanning the news for the latest reports from both Chad and Sudan.And with each click of my mouse, and with each search I make, bad news covers my screen. Sudan is deteriorating at the fastest rate it has since I started working on this issue. One of the many factions of Darfur rebels, JEM, reached the capitol early this month and launched its first ever attack on the capitol since 2003. Using this as an excuse, the military proceeded to move house to house, pulling Darfuris, mostly Zaghawa, from their homes and executing them in the streets to make a threatening point to others. Scores more were arrested, probably to be tortured and killed under government supervision. And just a few days ago the Northern Government of Sudan attacked, Abeyei, a strategic town in Southern Sudan, which experts say might lead to the resurgence of the N/S War that raged for more than two decades.

And worse, the rains have begun and food rations have been cut to 1200 calories. Those who have survived thus far are facing worsening conditions that threaten their survival.

The situation in Darfur, Sudan, and the entire region is worsening as we sit at our computers and click online petitions to thank our presidential candidates for making a joint statement. These actions are absolutely necessary, but we can be doing more. Gabriel reminded us of Adam’s words, and I will remind you here once again:

“We have no hope except international community…Without your help we see no hope. United Nations and Security Council they are supposed to do more. No Talks. We need action. We need work. Our people are dying. Every day the news we are getting from Darfur the situation there is destroyed. People are escaping. People are suffering. People are asking the international community for help.”

We need to be doing more. It’s easy for me, and probably many of you, to get wrapped up in my activism and dedication to the world, and put to this before myself. I know that many people stood with Gabriel, Josh, Jeremiah, and I while we were caught in the military coup attempt in February. And I know that for many of you it’s hard to see us return. Thank you for your support. And thank you for standing with the people of Darfur. I assure that I am confident it in our return trip, and feel it absolutely necessary to end the violence.

As I look through action items available on the web, and collaborate with other Darfur groups, I find myself wishing that we had more opportunities to get involved and take action. We need more creative. We need more of the voices to reach decision makers. We need to be doing more to end this genocide. So I make this commitment for i-ACT June 2008: This will be the i-ACT that changes the movement. I will do everything I can from the field and via the web to spread the voice of the refugees so that it enters thousands of email boxes and reaches the hearts of every reader, at an international level.

I invite you to do this with me. You have been a huge support and source of hope for many survivors of the genocide, and so I ask you right now to Become a More Committed i-ACTivist – an increase of energy and dedication now is what will make the difference in the lives of every Darfuri everywhere. It has been too long.

In Peace, KTJ