Aid workers in Dadaab - the world's largest refugee camp, set up in 1991 to cater for Somalis fleeing civil war - tell me that families always ask for cylindrical jerry cans rather than ones with square edges. The reason......more
Rob Crilly - African Safari: June 2009 Archives
Who's Got Your Back?
Newspapers are going to the wall and freelancers in all industries are struggling as the ranks of the self-employed are swollen by the newly de-salaried. Not a good time to be a freelance journalist. There seems to be more and......more
Microwaving the Frog in Darfur
Here's how one of my aid worker friends put it: "It's like the boiling frog. If you had said to us at the start of the Darfur emergency that this is where we would end up, then no-one would have......more
The Queen's Birthday
So, once a year Nairobi society gets together to celebrate the Queen's birthday. As far as I know no-one bothers to do this sort of thing in Britain but as Kenya aspires to be Britain of the 1950s this is......more
What's the Point of Advocacy?
Signs of weariness among some of the campaigners who first brought Darfur to the world's attention. After six years of advocacy, of campaigning for an end to the conflict, there's a moment of soul-searching. Nick Kristof, columnist for the New......more
Save to Rename Itself Dave and Return to Darfur
Three expelled charities are still in talks to go back into Darfur, according to Reuters. I find this whole thing ridiculous, as I've posted before. The three agencies are Mercy Corps, Care and Save the Children (US). There are good......more
Jem's Mobile Media Centre
The war in Darfur is being fought with pickups loaded with Dushka anti-aircraft guns, rocket propelled grenades and a Toyota LandCruiser kitted out as a mobile media centre. Deep in North Darfur, along the border with Chad, Khalid Mohamed Ahmed......more
Those White Arab Horsemen At It Again...
Here's how one UN official apparently summed up the Darfur conflict to an unnamed celebrity passing through N'Djamena recently...Un-named UN figure: (enthusiastically) “Yes, basically the janjaweed are the Arabs, you know the ‘white’ Arab horsemen who carried out the killings against black......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...