UN calls on Sudan to protect people of Darfur

Sept 29, 2005 (GENEVA) — The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees on Thursday said it had reports of a deadly attack on a displaced persons’ camp in Sudan’s embattled Darfur region and called on the national government to protect the area’s people.

“The government of Sudan has a responsibility to ensure security for all of its citizens,” said Antonio Guterres, chief of the U.N. agency. “As long as this insecurity continues, the international community cannot provide the assistance that is so desperately needed by hundreds of thousands of people.”

UNHCR cited aid workers’ reports of an unprecedented attack that left 29 people dead and 10 seriously hurt Wednesday at Aro Sharow camp. The reports said up to 300 armed Arab men on horses and camels attacked the camp in northwest Darfur and burned about 80 makeshift shelters.

Between 4,000 and 5,000 Sudanese were believed to be living in the camp and most reportedly fled into the surrounding countryside, UNHCR said. The nearby village of Gosmeina was also reportedly attacked and burned.

Camp residents stayed in the camp at night for safety, but would return to their nearby villages during the day to cultivate their fields, the agency said.

U.N. humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, warned on Wednesday that escalating violence in Darfur is threatening aid for millions of people as increasing numbers of international staff come under attack.

“If it continues to escalate, if it continues to be so dangerous on humanitarian work, we may not be able to sustain our operation for 2.5 million people requiring lifesaving assistance,” Egeland, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said. “It could all end tomorrow. It’s as serious as that.”

UNHCR said it was also concerned that the deterioration in security is slowing aid supplies and could prompt Darfur’s displaced people to flee again — possibly to neighboring Chad, which already has more than 200,000 Sudan refugees.

The Darfur crisis began when rebels took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of African origin. The government is accused of responding with a counterinsurgency campaign in which the ethnic Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, committed widespread abuses against ethnic Africans.

At least 180,000 people have died in the Darfur conflict — many from hunger and disease.