In the evening the local staff tell me that Janjaweed who herd their camels in the area have been in the camp to visit the market again, and that they have been leading their camels up to the water point to drink. Of course, this completely contaminates the water and destroys all the public health promotion work the NGOs have been doing.

People standing in line for water are too terrified to breathe a word (someone who spoke up last month apparently received a bullet in the foot). Our Sudanese staff try to intervene cautiously (not surprisingly, they're also terrified). They’re ignored by the camel owners; it’s only when they leave that they get a hissed acknowledgement of "Just wait until all your khawaja (foreigners) are gone, then we will kill you all." My stomach turns at the thought of what could happen the next time we evacuate from the town.

Tags: Sudan, Darfur, NGO, aid worker, Janjaweed, camel, water point