Sudan journalist works from the grass roots up

Al Fasher: For Awatif Ahmad Isshag, covering Darfur is the story of her life.

Nearly a decade ago, at 14, Isshag started publishing a handwritten community newsletter about local events, arts and religion. Once a month she would paste decorated pages to a large piece of wood and hang it from a tree outside her family's home for passersby to read.

But after western Sudan plunged into bloodshed and suffering in 2003, Isshag's publication took on a decidedly sharper edge, tackling issues such as the plight of refugees, water shortages, government inaction in the face of militia attacks and sexual violence against women.

Her grass-roots periodical has become the closest thing that Al Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, has to a hometown newspaper. More than 100 people a day stop to check out her latest installments, some walking several miles from nearby displacement camps, she said.

"I feel I have a message to deliver to the community," said Isshag, now 24-years-old.

The petite reporter is an increasingly common sight around town, her notebook and pen in hand as she interviews local people for her articles. This week she roamed Al Fasher asking people how they feel about the International Criminal Court's recent accusations against of two war-crimes suspects in Darfur.

Critics have attempted to intimidate her and force her to shut down. Instead, Isshag is expanding this month with a new printed edition, enabling her to circulate for the first time beyond the neighbourhood tree.

"She represents the only indigenous piece of journalism in Darfur," said Simon Haselock, a media consultant with Africa Union in Khartoum, the capital.

"She's got energy and drive. It's exactly what they need."

Readers say her magazine, called Al Raheel (which roughly translates as Moving or Departing) is one of the only places they can read locally produced stories about issues touching their lives.

"It's the best because this magazine shows what is really happening in Darfur," said Mohammad Ameen Slik, 30, an airline supervisor who lives nearby.

Suffering

Isshag complained that despite widespread international attention, the suffering of Darfur remains vastly under-reported inside Sudan. There are no local television stations in the area and most newspapers operate under government control or are based hundreds of miles away in Khartoum.

"The local media don't cover the issue of Darfur. We hear about it when one child dies in Iraq, but we hear nothing when 50 children die [in Darfur]."

Through articles, essays and poems, Isshag frequently blames the government for failing to protect the citizens of Darfur.

A recent story titled What's Going on Al Fasher? compares the government's tightening security in the city to checkpoints in Lebanon. Another thinly veiled poem told the story of a sultan who blithely tried to reassure his long-suffering subjects. Isshag said government officials so far largely have dismissed her as "just a young girl."

But during a recent trip to Khartoum, she received an anonymous phone call from someone who warned her to "stop writing" and "take care of your education" instead.

She shrugged off the threat.

"I'm not afraid. Journalism is a profession of risk. I'm not doing something wrong. I'm doing something right."

Her passion for giving voice to the region's victims stems in part from her own family's losses. A cousin walked for three days to escape attacks by Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, after her village was burned down. Her grandfather died in a displacement camp near Nyala. About a dozen other family members still live in the camp, unable to return home due to insecurity.

Isshag hopes to complete a master's degree in economics at the University of Khartoum and then one day to lead a development company, building schools and houses in her long-marginalised homeland. But for now she's focused on improving the magazine.

After a local Khartoum-based newspaper profiled her, Isshag received a new computer and printer as a gift from a well-wisher in Qatar. She's also looking into launching a website.