ARDAMATA CAMP, Sudan — Rose Etim drives through the Ardamata camp every day, surrounded by Darfuris crying out "Mama Rosa," stopping at every other home and greeting the people by name.
Her white African Union vehicle resembles U.N. cars but with one difference. Hers is overflowing with refugees and even police and soldiers as she offers them lifts to the market.
Neither A.U. nor U.N. cars are allowed to carry nonstaffers, but Etim said to create trust you have to be with the people.
"When my officer sees me, he gets angry, but I don't care," she said, laughing.
Sudanese cops failed Darfuris
Etim, 46, a mother of two from across the continent in Came-roon, is one of more than a thousand A.U. police in Sudan's violent west, trying to restore confidence the people of the region have lost in their own authorities after more than three years of rape, killing and looting.
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The first contingent of A.U. police were all men, but they were unable to help the women in Darfur who are so often the victims of sexual attack.
Etim, who has worked as a policewoman in West Africa for 25 years and is a trained nurse, was sent in later with a band of women to protect and comfort these traumatized civilians.
Etim heads the A.U. police station, which has six other policewomen, maintaining a 24-hour presence at Ardamata Camp for the past six months. Since then, Janjaweed incursions have been reduced to once a week, compared with multiple attacks each day.
Although camp residents 18 months ago rejected the deployment of an A.U. force, saying they preferred U.N. or U.S. troops only, in Ardamata they have changed their tune.
"Slowly, things are better than they were before," said Yehia Sherif Ishaq. "Even the government police are better than before but not without the A.U. here," he added.
2 million fled marauders
Washington calls the violence genocide and blames the government and its allied Arab militias known as Janjaweed for targeting non-Arab tribes. Khartoum denies the charge.
But the 2 million Darfuris who fled marauding militias to miserable camps across the desert region have no trust in their own police to stop the almost daily attacks, which continue even inside the camps.
In Ardamata, near Sudan's border with Chad, at least 22,500 people live, dependent on food aid and held hostage by militia attacks if they dare to venture more than one mile outside the camp perimeter.
"We cannot go out any farther than those two trees there," said elderly Khatir Adam Hassan, pointing to bushes less than a mile away.
A.U. soldiers try to monitor and uphold a shaky cease-fire between non-Arab rebels and the government, and unarmed A.U. police work to rebuild the broken bonds between the people and the police who are supposed to guard them against such attacks.
At first, the police and the army viewed the A.U. police with suspicion and obstructed their work. Etim, or "Mama Rosa" as the Darfuris call this plump woman with short-cropped hair, spent hours after she arrived sitting with police to gain their trust. She even bought fabric and paid a tailor to make them uniforms and gives them notebooks to record complaints.
Now local police turn to her, calling her to give details of Janjaweed attacks.
"Stay in Sudan; don't ever go back to Cameroon," said Ardamata resident Zeinab Abou, hugging Etim as if she never wanted to let go.
