UN appeals for $1.5 bln for Sudan 2009 humanitarian plan
November 20, 2008 (GENEVA) — The United Nations asked today donors for 1.56 billion dollars to fund its humanitarian action in the war-torn region of Darfur and other parts of Sudan during the next year 2009.
The UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes launched today the U.N. Work Plan for Sudan which is valued at $2.2 billion. However more than a quarter ($619 million) of that funding has already been secured, the UN said.
Almost half of the total requirement, some $1.05 billion, is for Darfur, where an estimated 4.5 million people continue to be in need of assistance after six years of conflict between the government forces and the rebel groups.
The 2009 appeal will enable the UN and partners to provide more than four million people with food aid and more than 1.5 million additional people with safe water, to help 54,000 refugees come home and get more than 800,000 children into schools, to clear mines from more than 7,500 km of roads and ensure more than four million people have access to basic health services.
The head of UN humanitarian affairs said that Darfur region remains volatile; increasingly, the humanitarian community is having to adapt its approach to overcome challenges linked to ongoing violence, displacement and bureaucratic restrictions.
The estimated population of Darfur is six million people; 4.5 million need humanitarian aid, while 2.5 million are displaced, mostly into camps.
“Flare-ups in violence prevent people from moving freely to fields, markets, clinics and schools, and have made it increasingly challenging for aid workers to reach them.” Holmes said. “Leaving Darfur in its present state is not an acceptable option for anyone,” he added.
Also there are complex and varied for the rest of Sudan particularly southern Sudan and the areas along the north/south border, said Holmes. The basic services and livelihoods are limited, and stretched further by return of 2.1 million to the region since the signing of a peace agreement in 2005.
However, there are still around four million southern Sudanese refugees or displaced who didn’t return to their home in the region due to the lack of water, sanitation and other basic services.
“Conditions in south Sudan remain dire for far too many people,” he said, noting that a higher percentage of women die in child birth and fewer children are fully immunised than almost anywhere else in the world.
(ST)