Living under the shadow of violence and disease in Darfur
By Hassen Zenati
KHARTOUM, Aug 4 (AFP) — The flow of people fleeing west Sudan’s Darfur region has slowed but violence continues amid growing food needs and a health situation set to worsen with the coming rains, aid groups warned on Wednesday.
Those needing food aid will almost double in the next few months, reaching two million in October against 1.2 million at present, according to the World Food Program (WFP).
Roger Winter, of the USAID organisation, expects the region to need emergency relief for at least another 18 months, since farmers driven from their land could not sow this year’s crops.
Up to 50,000 people have died and 1.2 million have either fled their homes or been chased from them since ethnic minority rebels launched an uprising early last year against the Sudanese army.
“The flow of displaced persons has gradually slowed, but it has not stopped altogether,” according to Carlo Piccinini, communications coordinator for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“The situation varies. Some people continue to seek refuge in camps, others return home only to come back, while still others head home but leave their families behind in camp,” he said.
Levels of violence against Darfur’s black African population are reported to be falling, but the threat of persecution, rape and murder stops many of the displaced from going home, according to aid agencies.
In West Darfur, aid groups have reported that growing numbers of Janajweed are roaming near the camps for displaced persons and attacks on women and cases of rape were reported in late July in Geineina, the regional capital.
Last Friday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution giving Khartoum 30 days to disarm the pro-government Arab Janjaweed militia, accused of committing many of the atrocities against black civilians.
It also requires Khartoum to allow free access for aid groups and secure the province to allow the displaced to return home.
Aid groups accuse the Khartoum authorities, under acute pressure to resolve the crisis in Darfur, of herding people out of camps and back towards their home villages, despite the precarious security situation.
Several leaders of groups of displaced persons are reported to have been severely beaten for refusing to guide their groups back home.
The government is officially carrying out a policy of voluntary return for the displaced and claims that two camps, near Geineina and Nyala in the south, have already been evacuated on a voluntary basis — although aid agencies contacted in Khartoum had no knowledge of these operations.
The onset of the rainy season brings with it the threat of disease, heightened by the squalid living conditions in the camps that shelter Darfur’s displaced.
The ICRC fears a major outbreak of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera as well as malaria and meningitis.
The organisation intends to double its Khartoum budget in 2005 to tackle the growing needs of the diplaced, according to Piccinini.
“We have reorganised our camps to counter the effects of promiscuity, allocating each displaced person 10 square metres of living space,” he said.
The ICRC has allocated 19 million euros (23 million dollars) to assist displaced persons over the six months to December 2004, providing tents and other equipment to 250,000 people, and food aid to some 5,000 people per month.