UN faces serious lack of funding for Darfur humanitarian aid

September 26, 2007 25 (GENEVA) — The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called on donors on Tuesday to provide immediate funding for the agency, otherwise it might have to scale down its operations to assist internally displaced people and refugees in Darfur, Sudan.

“We are seriously concerned that the lack of funding will soon have a direct impact on our operation to protect and assist some of the more than 2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and thousands of Chadian refugees in Darfur,” UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told reporters in Geneva.

“We are already facing difficulties in paying staff salaries for next month,” she said.

UNHCR said that its operation for the troubled Sudanese region is facing a shortfall of 7.1 million U.S. dollars in its 2007 budget of 19.7 million U.S. dollars.

The agency said its Darfur operation mainly focuses on protection and humanitarian aid to assist the IDPs. This includes promoting access for IDPs to legal redress; the provision of relief items to vulnerable people; strengthening basic services; and efforts to avoid further displacement.

But all of these activities could be curtailed if the funding situation does not improve, it said.

“We remain extremely concerned that there is still no major improvement in the security situation in Darfur. New displacement is still being reported. People continue to arrive in IDP camps,” said Pagonis.

An estimated 250,000 people have been newly displaced this year due to the violence, joining some 2 million others.

UNHCR is also responsible for 30,000 Chadian and Central African refugees in West Darfur. The number of refugees has steadily increased during the year, a trend that is likely to continue if the security situation fails to improve in Chad and the Central African Republic.

(Xinhua)