Lewiston doctor Stephen Sokol writes from Sudan, where he is helping to provide medical care.

I have been back in Sudan now for two weeks. The first few days were in Khartoum where the scars of the recent riots following the death of Vice President John Garang still exist in the presence of a few scattered burnt vehicles and buildings.

I am told that the riots appeared to be well-organized and not just spontaneous. Three of our staff were injured, one seriously by a spear but he is recovering. The next day, as you might expect, there were retaliation attacks against the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps circling the city.

I flew to Nyala on Sept. 6 and have been spending my time at the two camps in which we have clinics. The numbers have increased.

In Kalma, there are now anywhere between 130,000 and 150,000 in an area about 5 kilometers by 9 kilometers. Our major clinic averages 750 patients daily and our small, 25-bed hospital has an average census of 12. The three rehydration centers that we have establish are visited by approximately 600 people daily. At Ottash, about 8 kilometers from Nyala, there are about 25,000 and our clinic sees an average of 350 daily.

The conditions at both camps are appalling, but much worse at Kalma because of the overcrowding, leading to deplorable sanitation and poor water quality. Now that the rains are here, there are large pools of stagnant water that the children play in and the mosquitoes breed in. It is malaria season, and we are back up to at least 100 cases daily. Nets are in short supply. Many are damaged, and, often, dad uses them and not the children, if they are used at all. The major illnesses are diarrhea with varying severity of dehydration, malaria and respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia.

Although the pitched battles between the various factions here have dwindled significantly, there has been a corresponding rise in banditry. The government blames the rebels, but it is both the rebels and the Janjaweed. Attacks on civilians, including rapes, continue with little letup, almost daily, and those are the ones we hear about.

Rape is a multi-edged sword. There is the initial brutality of the crime followed by tragic consequences for the girl or woman, but also for any child conceived. The family of the victim feels that she has dishonored them and, very often, she is thrown out or occasionally killed. If there is a child, it is likely that he or she will be abandoned and left to die.

What is new is that malnutrition has reappeared as there have not been consistent food deliveries for at least five months. Some supplements are getting through, but only for children and pregnant ladies. Even then, there’s not enough. It seems due to difficulty, initially again, at Port Sudan. Lately, there have been attacks on aid convoys. The government is using this as a lever to try and force the IDPs back to their villages, but they will not move despite the increased hardships. There is safety in numbers and, at Kalma, the police now are afraid to enter the camp and just patrol around. But their presence just does not extend far enough. Just yesterday (Sept. 13) seven men went out about 15 kilometers to collect firewood. They were attacked by Janjaweed, the survivors said. Three made it back to our clinic, and four were thought to have been captured but later returned to the camp, having also escaped. They were most fortunate as their fate, if captured, would have been torture and death. This was reported to the African Union troops, but there is little that they can or actually do.

Next week, I will visit our clinics in Kass, about 75 kilometers from Nyala, depending on the availability of space on World Food Program helicopters as the roads are not safe to travel. This is the road where our aid convoy with USAID was attacked last March and one woman was shot in the face. Kass was a town, before the war, that had a population of 35,000. Now there are about 50,000 IDPs there. The people are scattered about in small camps, the largest being about 5,000. Many live with relatives or in larger municipal buildings as schools. We have two clinics there that see about 800 patients daily. As there is less crowding in the camps, the sanitation and water quality are better.

As for the future, who knows.

The saying here is “Inshallah” – if God wills it. Next week, the peace talks resume but the major problems are still there, if peace comes. The Janjaweed and bandits are still there and still active. The government, at present, has little control of this.

Dr. Stephen Sokol lives in Lewiston. He is currently on his second six-month mission to the Darfur region of Sudan. This letter was written Sept. 14.

He is overseeing the medical care in several clinics and hospitals, all adjacent or close to large refugee camps. The people in these camps owe their survival in large part to aid workers such as Sokol who is at this time working for the International Rescue Committee, a leading provider of humanitarian aid in the war-torn nation alongside Medecins Sans Frontiers and Medecins du Monde.

Sokol’s volunteer work for the International Red Cross and MSF has taken him across the world, including Guatemala; Haiti; Kenya; Macedonia, during the Kosovo war; Stavropol, Russia, where he trained Chechen doctors; and Sierra Leone.