Continued delays on Darfur intervention prove deadly
Africa Action
Contact: Ann-Louise Colgan (202) 546-7961
Negotiations on Peace Deal Stall, as Genocide in Darfur Continues, and U.S. Public Demands New Action from Bush Administration
May 4, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — With the deadline for a peace
deal on Darfur twice postponed at the Abuja talks this week, Africa
Action today emphasized that the situation in Darfur is worsening daily,
and that an international protection force is urgently needed on the
ground. With another deadline in Abuja set for tonight, Africa Action
stressed the importance of a successful outcome of these negotiations,
but also exhorted the United Nations (UN) Security Council to address
the security needs in Darfur by pursuing a multinational peacekeeping
mission with a mandate to protect the people of Darfur.
Ann-Louise Colgan, Director of Policy Analysis & Communications at
Africa Action, said today, “The Abuja talks cannot continue to be a
pre-condition for international action to protect the people of Darfur.
As the provisions of a peace agreement are negotiated, the repeated
delays in the diplomatic process do nothing in the immediate term to
stem the violence and insecurity, or to address the precipitous decline
in living conditions. Rather than compound these conditions through
continued hesitancy, the U.S. and UN must expend every effort to ensure
a multinational peacekeeping operation is deployed to Darfur as soon as
possible.”
The acceleration of violence in recent months and the conflict’s spread
into Chad have reportedly displaced an additional 200,000 people, with
more than 3 million already requiring daily humanitarian aid. In a
briefing with the Security Council on April 20, UN Under
Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland anticipated the
breakdown of UN humanitarian operations within months or even weeks.
Additionally, at the end of April, the World Food Program announced that
due to a severe lack of funds and a shortfall of contributions by
international donor governments, the rations available in Darfur would
be reduced by half.
In recent days and weeks, voices across the country have been raised and
intensified in support of immediate action to protect the people of
Darfur, as illustrated by the thousands who joined Africa Action and
other groups for a major rally in Washington, DC on April 30. Africa
Action took part in the Million Voices Campaign highlighted at last
weekend’s rally, and contributed over 200,000 voices, gathered over the
past two years of the organization’s campaign on Darfur. In addition to
these recent mobilizations urging new U.S. action on Darfur, a public
opinion poll conducted by Zogby America at the end of March reveals that
a majority of Americans believe that ending genocide in Sudan is a U.S.
responsibility.
Marie Clarke Brill, Director of Public Education & Mobilization at
Africa Action, said, “With sustained mobilization in their home
communities and the huge attendance at the rally on the National Mall
last weekend, thousands of Americans are making clear that the crisis in
Darfur is not forgotten. Deep concern for the people of Darfur is a
sentiment that cuts across diverse interest groups with the unified goal
of bringing about an international protection force in Darfur, and this
is the demand to which the Bush Administration will be held accountable.”
For more information and analysis from Africa Action on the crisis in
Darfur, see www.africaaction.org/darfur.