Darfur Diaries

Statement on the Shegeg Karo bombing

Shegeg Karo school, 2004

It is with a deep sense of grief and anger that we inform you that on Sunday, May 4th at approximately 2pm, the village of Shegeg Karo in North Darfur was attacked by an Antonov aircraft. According to information gathered by the villagers, the Antonov hovered for a long time and then bombed repeatedly, hitting the market and killing six students from the Shegeg Karo school.

Adam Shapiro, Aisha Bain and Jen Marlowe filmed part of “Darfur Diaries” in Shegeg Karo. Dero, our guide, translator, and dear friend in Darfur, built the Shegeg Karo school, teaching the children of the village. When the conflict began he stopped teaching out of fear for the children’s safety. Shegeg Karo had been largely quiet since early 2005, so we asked Dero if he wanted our help to start the school again and he enthusiastically agreed. On May 4, 2007, we held a fundraiser with Mia Farrow to raise the funds to launch the Shegeg Karo school. The school started in September 2007 with 230 students. Until the bombing, exactly one year to the date after the fundraiser, the Shegeg Karo School of Peace was providing education and hope to the children in the village.

We were originally told that one classroom was destroyed in the bombing. Later, we learned that the school was not directly hit; the students were killed after they left school and were passing through the market. The names and ages of the students killed are:
Fatima Suleiman Adam Omar, 3rd grade, 10 years old
Fatima Ahmad Bashir, 2nd grade, 8 years old
Mubarak Mohammed Ahmad, 3rd grade, 10 years old
Yusuf Adam Hamid, kindergarten, 5 years old
Munira Suleiman Adam, 2nd grade, 7 years old
Adam Ahmad Yusuf, 4th grade, 11 years old

20 shops (most of the market) were reportedly destroyed. A reported 5 people were killed in the market and others injured. Their names and ages are:
Saber Ardabo, 70 years old
Mubarak Adno Awad, approximately 17 years old
Nasser Adam Ahmad, 19 years old
Mustafa Ali Adam, 43 years old
Giddo Abdul Rasul Abdul Negi, 38 years old

There are 3 hand pumps in Shegeg Karo. 1 was already not working. Of the remaining hand pumps, 1 was destroyed, leaving only 1 working hand pump in the entire village.

No help arrived to the village until Wednesday, May 7th. By then, villagers had already driven the two most seriously injured children, an 8-year old girl named Fatma and a 14-year old boy named Adeen, to a town called Bir Maza, about 4 hours over grueling desert terrain. The International Committee for the Red Cross met them there. We learned on May 8th that Fatma and Adeen both had a leg amputated. We have no way to know if their legs could have been saved had they received medical attention sooner or were spared the grueling drive.

We are not going to abandon the children and people of Shegeg Karo. Their needs at this time are great; including long-term medical care for the two seriously children, repairing or replacing their water pump, rebuilding the market and assisting the families of the victims. We are in direct contact with people from the village and, as they assess their most urgent needs, we plan to support them in every way that we can, financially and otherwise.

We hope you will join us in standing in solidarity with the people of Shegeg Karo. We are working with Darfur Peace and Development Organization to establish a special fund for this purpose. If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution, please send a check to:
Darfur Peace & Development Org.
P.O. Box 90
Washington DC 20044
*Be sure to include a note that indicates the donation is for the “Shegeg Karo Fund.”

To make a secure contribution online, please visit their website:
Darfur Peace & Development Org
In the “payment for” line, please indicate that your contribution is for the “Shegeg Karo Fund.”

We also encourage people to express directly to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon their feelings about the shameful international response to the bombing of a school and marketplace, as well as to Rodolphe Adada, the head of mission of UNAMID, the UN-African Union Hybrid Force in Darfur—whose mission includes protection of civilians.

The fax number for UNSC Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson is: 212.963.7055.
Contact info for Rodolphe Adada is adada@un.org.
The spokesperson for UNAMID is Noureddine Mezni who can be reached at: n.mezni@gmail.com

Please contact us if you’d like to communicate about what more we can do together.

With condolences for those who lost their children and loved ones and with a pledge to stand with those in Darfur who are working to create a safer world for their children,
Aisha Bain, Jen Marlowe, Adam Shapiro

Links with more information on the Shegeg Karo bombing:
The Bombing of Shigeg Karo and the Miserable Response - Social Science Research Council
Darfur school ‘bombed from air’ - BBC
Aid group: 12 killed in airstrikes on school, market in north Darfur - IHT

Darfur Diaries: Message from Home

In October, 2004 three activists snuck across the Sudanese border into rebel-held territory to document the atrocities in Darfur. They returned with some of the first footage exposing the massive war crimes being perpetrated by the Sudanese government.

“I left the book and the film feeling a great deal more hope for us all.” - Alice Walker

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