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Flight From Darfur Ends Violently in Egypt
Hagga Abbas Haroun's daughter, Samar, shown with a family friend, survived the fire from Egyptian border guards that killed her mother.
(Photos By Nora Younis For The Washington Post)
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In Darfur, Haroun's education led to her becoming known as someone who was outspoken, said her cousin, Harron Abdel-Gabbar, and his wife, Nora Hamed. Her fluent Arabic made it possible for her to speak to outsiders on behalf of other villagers, many of whom spoke only local languages, the cousin said. In Darfur, that placed her under the suspicion of local authorities.
Arab Janjaweed militiamen killed Haroun's uncle and aunt in 2003, and then one of Haroun's brothers, her cousins said. Haroun and her fiance fled to Sudan's capital, Khartoum. There, they and other Darfur refugees faced bleak options: head back for refugee camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad, and risk more attacks there, try their luck in Libya, or head north into Egypt. They headed north.
Brutality and Prejudice
The newly married couple found Egypt crowded with 2 million or more of their countrymen, survivors of the massacres in Darfur and years of civil war in Sudan's south.
When a January 2005 peace deal formally ended the civil war in southern Sudan, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees refused to register any more Sudanese in Egypt for political asylum. Thousands of the Sudanese staged a three-month sit-in in front of the U.N. refugee office in Cairo to protest. Egyptian riot police stormed the camp on Dec. 30, 2005, using water cannons and beating the refugees. Rights groups and government health officials said police killed at least 20 of the Sudanese refugees.
Haroun had taken her turn at the sit-in, but was not there the night police attacked, said Samira Saleh, one of Haroun's closest friends.
The sit-in brought out the prejudice some Egyptians hold against dark-skinned Sudanese -- saying that the Sudanese use drugs or carry AIDS. Some Sudanese said they found it more difficult to get jobs after the sit-in.
Abkar, Haroun's husband, supported her and their baby daughter, Samar, by scrounging at demolition sites. Haroun's mother and father called her frequently, begging for help for her surviving family still in Darfur.
"All of her concern was to get money to them," Saleh said.
A Tiny Bag of Hope
In late July, the number of Sudanese refugees caught or wounded while attempting the Israeli border crossing still seemed small compared with the number who made it across.
"Even if there is killing, the flow of people increases," said Salah Tukka, a 43-year-old Darfur refugee. "Because we know if we go back to Darfur, any day we can die."
Haroun and Abkar made contact with an Egyptian middleman in Cairo. The middleman connected them with Bedouin guides to lead them across the border. Haroun sold her gold jewelry and her household furnishings to raise the $600 fee the Bedouins demanded, her friend Saleh said.
Saleh pleaded with Haroun to stay, she said, telling Haroun her future in Israel was "ambiguous."
