Another aid worker killed in Darfur

Sept 5, 2006 (NAIROBI) — Another aid worker has been killed in the volatile western Darfur region, bringing to 12 the number killed since May, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said.

The latest victim, a 37-year-old IRC nurse, was killed during fighting in Hashaba, North Darfur, on Friday. The nurse was managing a health centre in the area, about 100 km north of El Fasher, which was looted during the clashes.

“We do not know who did it; all we know is that there was fighting going on in area,” Rebecca Dale, adviser to IRC in Khartoum, said on Tuesday. “The IRC is very concerned about the increased targeting of health workers. We are doing everything we can to continue to offer services.”

The IRC, the sole healthcare provider in the Hashaba area, had not been able to fully access a population of about 85,000 for more than three months due to instability. To provide services, the IRC uses ‘incentive nurses’ – local Sudanese community staff who are paid a small stipend.

The nurse who died on Friday was one such staff member. “The IRC calls upon all parties to the conflict in Darfur to cease targeting civilians and humanitarian workers,” the NGO said.

On 16 August, a staff member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was killed after being abducted east of the Jebel Marra mountains in North Darfur. The 31-year-old Sudanese national was part of an ICRC team stopped by an unidentified group of armed men after distributing food in the area.

The killings come amid a significant deterioration in security conditions in the region following the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement on 5 May. Since then, violence has spread across Darfur due to the fragmentation of various rebel groups and escalating fighting between the signatories and non-signatories of the DPA.

According to the United Nations, the number of attacks on NGOs has risen to 75 percent higher than this time last year.

(IRIN)