More relief workers leave Sudan’s Darfur

Dec 18, 2006 (GENEVA) — Some 124 nongovernmental and United Nations employees have left Darfur in the latest evacuation of relief workers from Sudan’s turmoil-torn region, the Swiss humanitarian group Terre des Hommes (TDH) said.

“It’s a decision that’s been pushed back for some time and carries heavy consequences for populations enduring the planet’s most serious humanitarian crisis,” the group’s relief director Ignacio Packer said in a statement about the relief workers flown out of Darfur Sunday.

Violent incidents have been on the rise lately in Darfur, a vast western region of Sudan where the humanitarian situation has steadily deteriorated. At least 200,000 people have died of the combined effect of war and famine since fighting there erupted almost four years ago, the UN says, although others offer far higher tolls.

TDH, which evacuated 5 employees Sunday, has suspended its Darfur operations until January, although it retains a skeleton staff in the region.

“The violence is peaking,” the group warned, as it denounced attacks by government-backed Arab militias in Darfur. “Incidents and attacks are multiplying against displaced people and humanitarian personnel.”

The evacuations follow the exodus from Darfur of 250 employees of international non-governmental organisations, announced Friday by the relief agency Oxfam International.

(AFP)