Darfur aid: 'It has never been so bad'
Aid workers are getting less and less access to those in need in the war-torn Darfur region even as 50,000 people fled their homes amid a government offensive this month, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator in Sudan says.
Manuel Aranda Da Silva said the situation in Darfur had never been so bad for aid workers’ access since August 2003, the start of the conflict that has since killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million in the vast region of western Sudan.
“There have been new, huge difficulties and aid groups have had to pull out from large areas,” he told The Associated Press in an interview yesterday in Khartoum.
The UN estimates 100,000 people have been displaced by violence since May, and Da Silva said half of those fled in September when the Sudanese army launched a major offensive against rebels in North Darfur province, one of three that make up the region.
UN agencies in the field estimate that hundreds of soldiers and rebels have been killed in the campaign. Da Silva also feared that indiscriminate aerial bombardments of villages hosting rebels could create more civilian casualties.
Aid organisations have been unable to operate in North Darfur, meaning they cannot deliver medical or food aid to some 350,000 in need.
Throughout Darfur, banditry is on the rise, as is violence between pro- and anti-government tribes in the south, making regions there dangerous for relief agencies to work in, da Silva said.
Top UN officials have warned that the recent peace agreement was “in a coma” and that aid workers would have to leave if security further deteriorates.
However, da Silva said aid agencies and non-governmental organisations were committed to staying on.
“We have a humanitarian responsibility toward the people of Darfur, we are not considering to leave,” said Da Silva, the deputy head of the UN in Sudan and the humanitarian co-ordinator.
Aid workers would only pull out if ordered to do so by the Sudanese government or if the level of violence renders any effort useless, he said.
The Darfur conflict erupted in 2003 when mainly ethnic African rebel groups, complaining of discrimination by the Arab-dominated government, launched their revolt. The government responded with a military assault, and pro-government militias known as the janjaweed launched a campaign of violence against villagers.
Da Silva said there has recently been a strong increase in attacks on humanitarian groups, and that 11 aid workers had been killed over the past three months. More than 25 vehicles were stolen at gunpoint, mostly by rebels.
Rogue rebel chiefs who have resorted to looting have become the greatest danger to aid work, da Silva said.
Meanwhile, the president of the African Union said yesterday that peacekeeping troops should not be sent to Darfur without the Sudanese government’s approval,
Sudan’s government has faced international pressure to allow a UN peacekeeping force to enter the Darfur region, where ethnic fighting has killed at least 200,000 people and chased 2.5 million from their homes since 2003.
“No soldier should go to Sudan without the permission of the Sudanese government because it’s not about making war with the Sudanese people but helping them,” AU head Alpha Oumar Konare told the Caracas-based television station Telesur during a visit to Venezuela.
The current AU peacekeeping force was scheduled to be replaced by a larger UN force this month, but Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir opposes UN intervention in the Darfur region and the AU has announced it will stay on until at least the end of the year.
Konare’s comments came as al-Bashir, in Sudan, lashed out at the US, saying Washington’s plans to create a “new Middle East” were behind an international push to replace AU peacekeepers with UN forces in Darfur.
“They want to use the Darfur issue to re-colonise Sudan,” said al-Bashir, who accused the US and Britain of wanting to reshape the region in Israel’s interests.
