EL FASHER, SUDAN — Amid the suffering of Darfur, there's an odd prosperity bubbling up in this once sleepy town.
Paved streets and lampposts are replacing sand roads. A fleet of bright blue South Korean-made taxis, newer and nicer than those in Khartoum, the national capital, create afternoon traffic jams so bad that a police officer must direct the flow.
A pair of multistory office buildings are under construction downtown, and newly built rental homes can fetch $5,000 a month, not including utilities, of course, since most of El Fasher doesn't have water or electricity.
In stark contrast to the burned-out villages and squalid displacement camps that characterize much of Darfur, this dust-choked city is booming, thanks largely to an influx of scores of United Nations agencies and private charities, as well as the newly deployed U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission.
Since the conflict in Sudan's western region began in 2003, El Fasher's population has nearly doubled to 500,000 as refugees sought safety in camps along the city's borders or with family members in town. Though the North Darfur capital has its share of crime and gunfights, it has largely escaped the fighting that has plagued other areas.
Along with the displaced, El Fasher has attracted an army of aid workers who use the city as a base for battling Darfur's humanitarian crisis.
El Fasher's growth stands in stark contrast to the rest of the region, which continues to suffer one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Hundreds of villages have been destroyed. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people have died in the conflict, many from disease and hunger, and an additional 2.5 million have been displaced.
El Fasher is home to about 500 international staffers whose agencies have created an additional 3,000 jobs for locals. Those figures will only grow as the peacekeeping mission ramps up to full deployment of 26,000 troops and a civilian staff of 4,000, many of whom will be based in the mission's El Fasher headquarters.
It's a drop in the bucket compared with El Fasher's total population, but experts say the humanitarian industry now accounts for about two-thirds of the city's economy.
Retail sales are soaring thanks to the comparatively high salaries paid to international staffers, though foreign demand is also driving up prices on everything from real estate to bottled water.
