Bahai Beach 15

Bahai Beach 15


Novel attack.
01-10-2006

It becomes an elaborate play. A group of local dacoits enters a local ngo compound. They take hostage people present and start a frantic search for keys of the vehicle. The keyholder is so nervous that he forgets he has the keys in his pocket. In the mean time a security officer in hightened state of stress falls asleep on the floor. Four bandits move to their brothers of the police to kidnap some more people. They succeed and by now 10 people are held hostage. The guard of the compound escapes slithering his way over a wall and alerts the commander of the brigade. Just before he arrives some of the staff get smacked on the head as they are trying to send emergency signs by hand set. The bandits in a fine frenzy smash the front window of the car try to hot wire it but do not succeed. As the jeep of police arrives the crooks slip away by foot in the night. No one gets arrested and the hoodlums are still in town awaiting their next chance to heist a pick up.
To make matters better our gate is down to be rebuilt in a proper gate so at night we are without a gate with a vehicle in the compound that does not start. I guess at a point you just need to laugh about these events. Clearly the thieves are after cars and radios. No one has ever been robbed for money.
In the compound the chicken are breeding like anything. I lost count with the little ones. And therefore today I moved them to the gated enclosure. Mother chicken gave me a hard time to catch her before I managed to leave her in the fenced area.
There were two birthdays this week so we had a fantastic lunch with camel steak. In the camp in the mean time buildings are being reconstructed, gates are built, systems are put into place. It really is starting to look like a functional tweaked health care center. Yet I am curious how the big boss of UNHCR will respond when she visits.
O guess what today in open day light at 1100 in the morning one boy armed with a pistol stole the pick up they so much yearned for. One hour later it was spotted in Sudan and woo o woo the local police had no petrol to follow the perpetrators. In the larger picture at N Djamena and Abeche level heavy delegations are tumbling over the table with suggestions. We require extra police officers (fuel o and money would be nice UNHCR) Just cough it up. The thefts will continue but at least more of the people in Chad will benefit from your generosity. Somewhere in a compound today the brother of the president is laughing. He is our local sultan and he takes 10% of each and every deal made in Bahai. Bahai from the old days was a place where the outlaws used to hide, a place to meander, discuss and plan ahead like in a bad spaghetti western, but then eastern. If you lose the capacity to laugh about these events I guess you need to go. Safety wise I feel ok. I am trying to understand the motivation of the people here and it seems to be money spinning. How to milk the International community to the maximum. Their mandate after all is to take care of our Sudanese brothers in the process as we have no education.
As a short completion of the story. The awaited first clash between troops took place in Sudan leading to 30 plus casualties and unknown amounts of deaths. It was 5 kilometer away from the camp. Myself I was on route to N Djamena and now I am in Holland relaxing and trying to empty the mind. I shall comment more soon. My thoughts are with my colleagues.

Namaskar,

Ashis