It wasn't much more than a speck. A tiny, white fleck in the wide blue sky above us. Our 4x4 lurched to a halt as Yahia, the driver, peered through the 10 inches of windscreen scraped clean of the mud......more
Rob Crilly - African Safari: May 2009 Archives
Food on the Frontline
Assida is a thick porridge made from ground millet and is one of the main staples of Darfur. It's eaten by plunging your fingers into the stodgy mound, scooping out a scalding-hot lump and mopping up some of the sauce.......more
Coffee on the Frontline
Just returning from five days with rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement in Darfur. The trip was a chance to get under their skin and explore their programme for a chapter of my book (Saving Darfur: Everyone's Favourite......more
The Shanghai Car Park
It's good to know that when I stop off for lunch at my favourite Chadian Chinese restaurant, the Shanghai in Abeche, our armed friends are asked to leave their rocket propelled grenades in the car park.Tension is being racheted up......more
Back on the road
I'm back on the road after a couple of months stuck in Nairobi - the result of both the financial crash and the fact that I was locked in a room trying to write a book. Travelling would have been......more
Cholmondeley and Me
It was one o'clock in the morning and my beeping phone woke me. One of my papers had been calling, late, very late. I called them back."Tom Cholmondeley has just been arrested. He shot someone on his land," said the......more
Aiding and Abetting Khartoum
So you are an NGO recently expelled from Darfur. Over the years the government in Khartoum restricted your operations in the field, kicked out your country director and a security officer, whom the regime accused of being a Mossad agent.......more
Save Darfur, Eat de Waal
Me, I love a good feud. The best ones are not between people with wildly opposing views (I'm thinking Creationists against Darwinists) but between people who should basically be on the same side (say Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins).......more
Rob Crilly in Jerusalem
Rob Crilly is a freelance journalist based in Jerusalem writing for The Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Mail. He spent...