4 million people in Darfur are in desperate need of help – UN
Nov 23, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — Four million Sudanese in conflict-wracked Darfur are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance as newly rearmed Arab militias and rebels escalate attacks and resume looting and burning villages, the U.N. humanitarian chief said.
Jan Egeland decried the “dramatic deterioration” of the situation in Darfur, where the number of people in need has increased relentlessly from 1 million on his first visit in 2004, and warned on Wednesday that the region could face a major humanitarian disaster within weeks unless there is a real cease-fire and a renewed effort to reach a lasting peace.
He blamed the Sudanese government, the Arab militias it backs and rebel groups for fueling the conflict — and the international community for not protecting innocent civilians living in fear of rape and killings as world leaders pledged to do at a U.N. summit in September 2005.
“I return with a plea from beleaguered Darfurians for immediate action to finally stop the atrocities against them,” said Egeland, who just completed his fourth and final mission to Darfur before stepping down as the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator next month.
In a report to the U.N. Security Council and comments to reporters afterwards, he said the best hope for peace is the agreement last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between Sudan and the United Nations that could open the door to the deployment of thousands of U.N. troops in Darfur as part of a “hybrid” U.N.-African Union force.
The agreement also called for a revitalized effort under U.N. and AU auspices to get more rebel groups to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, briefing the council later, said the AU and the U.N. would soon call a meeting of groups that have refused to sign the peace agreement “with the hope of resolving outstanding issues by the end of the year.”
If there is “massive pressure on the parties” from all 15 members of the Security Council, and from Asian, African and Islamic countries, Egeland said, “we may make historic deals on the political front.”
“And we should also make progress on getting a security presence on the ground that doesn’t only report on how bad it is, but actually protects women and children before they are attacked, killed, abused, raped,” he said.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since rebels from ethnic African tribes rose up against the Arab-led central government in 2003. Khartoum is accused of retaliating by unleashing the janjaweed militias of Arab nomads, and violence has only increased since the government and one rebel group signed a peace agreement in May.
Annan has called for a force of 17,000 soldiers and 3,000 police officers for Darfur. The AU’s 7,000 peacekeepers currently in the region — which is the size of France — have not been able to stem the violence.
The secretary-general told the Security Council that the meeting in Addis Ababa was “a major step forward” but he reiterated that the Sudanese government wanted consultations on two elements of the “hybrid” AU-U.N. force — the troop ceiling and the joint appointment of a special representative to oversee the mission and the force commander.
Afterwards, Annan told reporters that he spoke to Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday who indicated “he will be writing to me shortly.” Al-Bashir vehemently opposed the transfer of peacekeeping in Darfur from the AU to the United Nations.
Egeland said the current situation in Darfur is “closer to the abyss than I have witnessed since my first visit in 2004.”
The number of people needing help increased to 2 million in 2005, 3 million this spring, “and now there are 4 million in desperate need of humanitarian assistance — and that in a climate of massive rearmament,” he said.
“The reality on the ground is that we have a meltdown in security, the humanitarians are confined to the towns, we cannot even reach many of the camps,” Egeland said. “Militia attacks and banditry have rendered more than 95 percent of all roads in West Darfur no-go areas for the U.N. and NGOs.”
“The Arab militias are being armed to the teeth by the government. The rebels are getting arms across the border. The women who came to me from the camps said `thank you for the humanitarian assistance. It’s kept us alive. But now we fear we’re going to be killed.’ It’s been 1,000 days of fear. It’s been 1,000 nights of fear now since it started,” he said.
Government forces, militias, rebel groups, and an increasing number of opposition groups from neighboring Chad roam around freely inside and outside the camps today, “spreading fear and terror,” Egeland said. “Villages, camps and communities outside the urban centers of Darfur are again being burned and looted. Women and children are raped and killed with impunity.”
Egeland stressed, however, that this could all stop with a cease-fire, a peace agreement and deployment of a peacekeeping force that protects civilians.
“This can all change if there is a change in will,” he said. “It has to happen in Sudan, and it has to happen internationally.”
(AP)