In Darfur: A Travel Diary (Day 1)

In Darfur: A Travel Diary (Day 1)

In March, Kurt Pelda, Africa Bureau Chief of the Swiss daily the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), traveled to eastern Chad on the border with the Sudanese crisis region of Darfur: a trip that was documented in a diary published in English on World Politics Review and that would see him eventually turning back from the border due to inadequate security conditions. Last week, Pelda returned to the region and crossed the border into Darfur, where he is now accompanying a Darfur rebel group. His daily dispatches on his journey are being published in German on the NZZ Online here. Starting today, with "Day 1: Blurred Battle Lines in the Border Region," World Politics Review will be presenting them in English. In order not to cause unnecessary danger to himself and his travel companions, Kurt Pelda retains the right to omit or to change the names of places, roads and persons. He will make his exact itinerary known at the end of his trip.

Day 1: Blurred Battle Lines in the Border Region
Criss-Crossing the Semi-Desert

Shivering, the Chadian gendarmes get up from their night quarters in the sand. During the day, the thermometer reaches well over 90 ºF. But at night it gets chilly. The post is only a few kilometers away from the Sudanese border. We arrived in the dark last night and the gendarmes refused to permit us to continue. There are four of us: myself; Umar, a rebel commander from Darfur; the interpreter, Ibrahim; and Abakr, the Chadian driver.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review