Oxfam partly suspends operations in Sudan’s Darfur due to insecurity
July 10, 2006 (NAIROBI) — International aid agency Oxfam said on Monday it has temporarily closed two of its offices in the north part of Sudan’s Darfur region due to the increasing insecurity, which led to abduction of its employee in the strife- torn region.
In a statement issued in Nairobi, Oxfam International said insecurity is impeding aid operation in the strife-torn region of Darfur where thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced.
The British charity said a Sudanese staff member, who was taken during a hijacking of an Oxfam vehicle, has now been missing for two months, and all efforts to locate him have failed.
“The temporary closure of the program has been taken as the last possible option. Since the abduction we have been working tirelessly with the African Union, the United Nations, government authorities and local communities to try and locate him, without success. We continue to work for his return but in the meantime we have no option but to close the program,” Oxfam’s Regional Director, Paul Smith-Lomas said.
The agency said the ongoing insecurity in Darfur and the increased targeting of humanitarian vehicles and workers by armed groups, is making it ever more difficult and dangerous for aid agencies to operate.
Oxfam said the abduction occurred on May 3, when an agency vehicle was hijacked while carrying out routine work in rural areas around Saraf Omra, noting that neither the driver nor the vehicle has been recovered and the perpetrators have not been confirmed.
“As a result, the Oxfam offices in Saraf Omra and Birka Seira, in the western part of North Darfur, have now officially been closed. Oxfam operations continue throughout the rest of Darfur,” it said.
Smith-Lomas stressed that this incident was an example of the need for urgent strengthening of the African Union Mission in Sudan.
Saraf Omra and Birka Seira are two of Oxfam’s six offices in North Darfur.
Oxfam’s programs currently provide clean water and sanitation to more than 400,000 people in the camps and rural areas of Darfur, as well as a further 125,000 Darfur refugees who have fled over the border to Chad.
(ST/Xinhua)