Darfur situation makes a mockery of Ban Ki-Moon fatuous optimism

“…credible and considerable progress in helping resolve this Darfur
situation”—
Assessment by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, July 2, 2007
Both truth and the people of Darfur and eastern Chad have now been
abandoned to an obscene political expediency (Part 1 of 2)

By Eric Reeves

July 8, 2007 — The UN Secretary-General has apparently assumed as his primary
responsibilities in responding to the Darfur crisis a contrivance of
meaningless optimism, a whitewashing of deteriorating security
conditions in the greater humanitarian theater, and a purveying of
absurd faith in the genocidal regime in Khartoum. Ban Ki-moon now
counsels a “patience” that does nothing so much as encourage the
génocidaires of the National Islamic Front to believe that they may
“run out the clock” in their ethnically-targeted human
destruction in Darfur, and as much of eastern Chad as necessary. At the
same time, Ban—and his economic advisor Jeffrey Sachs—now indulge a
preposterous account of the origins of the Darfur crisis, one that
elides all political history and substitutes instead meteorological
explanation (see http://www.sudanreeves.org/Article174.html). The
ambitions of self-exculpation are disgracefully in evidence.

Any reasonable overview of humanitarian indicators and human security
in Darfur and eastern Chad reveals a crisis of incomprehensible, but
still growing dimensions. It is not a “situation,” as Ban Ki-moon
would have it: it is a catastrophe. Indeed, eastern Chad appears to be
in the throes of violence as great as the most violent phase of the
Darfur genocide (2003-2004). But Darfur itself, and its relentlessly
growing population of conflict-affected persons, makes a mockery of Ban
Ki-moon’s fatuous optimism about “credible and considerable
progress” in halting massive human suffering and destruction. At the
same time, there is no progress in negotiating a cease-fire, in
advancing an inclusive peace process—or in deploying meaningful
security forces to Darfur.

Despite Khartoum’s purported “unconditional agreement” to the
deployment of an African Union/UN “hybrid force” to Darfur, there is
now almost universal skepticism that this “agreement” means anything
more than Khartoum’s countless abrogated “agreements” over the
past 18 years. Only fools and the obscenely expedient believe that
without much greater pressure on the regime any effective international
force, “hybrid” or otherwise, will deploy in the coming year, or
even two. Critically, there is neither clear agreement on overall
command-and-control of the mission nor a willingness by critical
troop-contributing countries to commit forces in the absence of UN
command of the operation. African Union countries cannot possibly
provide either the troops or—critically—the civilian police
required by the “hybrid force” as it has been promulgated. The key
resources—comprehensive logistics, rapid and widely dispersed air
transport and tactical combat aircraft, communications, and
intelligence-gathering—are nowhere in evidence. UN funding will no
doubt attract some of the traditional troop-contributing countries
(e.g., Bangladesh and Pakistan)—presuming Khartoum eventually agrees
to accept non-African troops, something it has so far not done
unambiguously. But the operation will succeed only if there are
critical resources and personnel coming from first-world military
powers. And to this Khartoum has and will vehemently object.

This is the context in which Ban Ki-moon appears to have invited an
assessment of his first six months as Secretary-General and in
responding to the Darfur crisis in particular:

“During the last six months, we have made slow but credible and
considerable progress in helping resolve this Darfur situation,’ [Ban]
told a news conference in Geneva.” (Reuters [dateline: Geneva], July
2, 2007)

What does the evidence at hand suggest of this self-congratulatory
assessment?

This analysis, in two parts, looks first at the security conditions in
Darfur and eastern Chad, based on the most recent assessments by
humanitarian organizations—UN and nongovernmental—on the ground.
This section is meant to serve primarily as a supplement to my recent
comprehensive overview of security issues as they affect civilians and
humanitarians (“Human Security in Darfur and Eastern Chad: An
Overview,” June 11, 2007:
http://www.sudanreeves.org/Article172.html

http://www.sudanreeves.org/Article171.html)

The second part of the analysis assesses the diplomatic efforts around
a still merely notional “peace process,” as well as the likelihood
of efforts to negotiate a cease-fire (or at least a cease-fire more
effective than the present meaningless one). It concludes with a survey
of military options for improving civilian and humanitarian security on
the ground in Darfur and eastern Chad.

A governing assumption in both parts is that the crisis in eastern Chad
has long since ceased to be merely a “spillover” from Darfur:
Khartoum’s ethnically-targeted destruction in Darfur may have been the
catalyst for much of the violence we are now seeing, but that violence
and growing ethnic hatred clearly have a life of their own, and the
security crisis in many regions of eastern Chad is now more severe than
in much of Darfur. It is perhaps notable that in his
self-congratulation on managing the Darfur crisis, Ban Ki-moon is not
reported as mentioning the catastrophe in eastern Chad, now affecting
some 500,000 civilians. As he did in eliding political history from his
meteorological account of the origins of the Darfur genocide, so in
speaking about “Darfur” Ban is deeply distorting the broader crisis
without devoting sustained and focused attention to eastern Chad.

That no international actors of consequence have rebuked or challenged
Ban’s claim of “credible and considerable progress in helping resolve
this Darfur situation” is hardly surprising: the Secretary-General’s
factitious optimism provides cover for the callous and cowardly behavior
of many, including those countries that have postured most conspicuously
on Darfur.

SECURITY IN DARFUR AND EASTER CHAD: RELENTLESS DETERIORATION

How does Ban Ki-moon’s claim of “credible and considerable
progress” square with the evidence coming from UN and nongovernmental
humanitarian organizations? How well has Ban represented the conditions
on the ground? How well has he read the reports and assessments by the
UN itself?

[1] “‘The security [in Darfur] is worse today than it has ever
been,’ [said UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan Manuel Aranda da
Silva].” (Reuters [dateline: Khartoum], June 8, 2007)

[2] “UN humanitarian coordinator [for Sudan], Manuel Aranda da Silva,
said that despite the May 2006 peace accord [the Darfur Peace Agreement
(DPA)], the violence and threat to humanitarian workers continued
unabated.” (Agence France Presse [dateline: Al Salaam Camp, North
Darfur], May 26, 2007)

[3] “‘The humanitarian situation in Darfur remains absolutely
critical. At any time we could face a catastrophe if the security
situation gets worse than it is already,’ Simon Crittle, the [UN World
Food Program (WFP)] spokesman in Khartoum, told World Politics Review.
‘WFP would welcome any improvement in the situation that an
international force could bring.’” (World Politics Review [dateline:
London], June 18, 2007)

[4] “Car-jackings, abductions and ambushes are hindering aid workers
involved the world’s biggest humanitarian relief effort in Sudan’s
violent Darfur region, a UN report obtained by Reuters on Monday [June
18, 2007] said. A record 68 aid vehicles were ambushed in the first five
months of 2007 and 23 of those attacks involved abductions, the UN
security report said. ‘The trend is still going upwards,’ [the
report] added. ‘Altogether 77 humanitarian workers have been abducted
in that way.’” [ ]

“The report said there was a high risk of being injured in the
confrontations between car-jackers and security forces or in car chases
or by being abandoned without communications gear, water or protection.
With roads becoming more dangerous, humanitarian workers rely for help
on aircraft operated by the World Food Programme (WFP), which has enough
funding to keep flying until October.” (Reuters [dateline: Khartoum],
June 18, 2007)

[5] “In other developments concerning Darfur, the [UN] spokesperson
reported that a UN Mission in Sudan [UNMIS] Human Rights team this week
visited Kutum, Kabkabiya, and Al Kuma in the troubled western region of
Sudan. ‘In Kutum, the team documented increased attacks on civilians
by Arab militia and continued gender-based violence incidents at
Fataborno IDP camp,’ said [UNMIS spokeswoman Rahdia] Achouri, adding
that UNMIS also documented an attack by Janjaweed on Mutu village on 8
June [2007] resulting in two deaths.”

“Incidents of car-jacking, particularly in West Darfur and South
Darfur, and temporary detention of international non-governmental
organization (NGO) staff, as well as forced entry into their compounds,
continue to be reported, according to UNMIS.”

“In South Darfur, insecurity continues to cause the displacement of
thousands of people, causing the population at camps housing them to
swell. Ms. Achouri cited the example of Al Salam camp, which had a
population of 13,300 in March [2007] and now houses 28,000 internally
displaced persons (IDPs), ‘with reports of 5,000 IDPs still on their
way.’ ‘Overall, insecurity, including attacks on humanitarian
workers, continues to seriously affect humanitarian access, and has a
significant impact on the quality of humanitarian interventions by
reducing the number of visits, affecting continuity of programmes and
presence of humanitarian personnel in outlying areas.’” (UN News
Service, New York, June 27, 2007)

[6] “The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said today that
more people had been displaced in the western Sudanese region of Darfur
due to the volatile security situation. Around 2,700 newly displaced
have arrived to Al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur from eastern
Jebel Marra due to the increasing insecurity there during June.”

“In South Darfur, insecurity continues to cause the displacement of
thousands of IDPs to Al Salam camp and to Um Dukhum. Al Salam camp,
which had a population of 13,300 in March, now houses over 33,000 IDPs,
with over 2,300 IDPs still to be verified. In Um Dukhum, West Darfur,
where the nutrition level was reported to be critical….” (Sudan
Tribune [dateline: Khartoum], July 4, 2007)

[7] “The security situation in the southern Darfur town of Gereida
[South Darfur] has not improved and militia attacks against civilians,
especially women, are continuing, the United Nations Mission in Sudan
(UNMIS) said today after wrapping up a four-day visit to the town.[ ]
Gereida is a key town [and site of the largest concentration of
displaced persons in the world], about 90 kilometres south of the
provincial capital, Nyala. The UNMIS team found that Janjaweed attacks
outside towns were ongoing and women were still subject to rape and
harassment.” (UN News Center, New York, June 18, 2007)

[8] “The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) reports that
attacks are continuing on humanitarian convoys operated by international
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country’s strife-torn
Darfur region. On Tuesday [June 19, 2007], an unknown armed man shot at
a vehicle in South Darfur hired by an international NGO, while in West
Darfur, two men stopped an international NGO convoy made up of two
vehicles with five staff members, and robbed them of personal effects
and communication equipment. Also in West Darfur, an international NGO
vehicle with four staff members was carjacked on Tuesday.” (UN New
Service, New York, June 21, 2007)

Reports from nongovernmental humanitarian organizations are, if
anything, grimmer:

[9] “Aid workers in Sudan’s Darfur region are coming under
increasingly frequent and savage attack, with June [2007] among the
worst months recorded, according to a confidential security report
compiled by an international charity. Thirty serious incidents took
place in the last month alone—up from an average of 10 per month one
year ago—as armed bandits and militia groups launched daily violent
attacks.”

“The report, by a charity working in Darfur, which cannot be
identified for safety reasons, reveals that 28 people working for
international aid agencies were abducted, while more than 35 vehicles
were either hijacked, shot at or stolen. Two people were shot dead and
five were injured during attacks. In one of the most daring incidents, a
convoy of 37 UN vehicles was ambushed near Kebkabiya in North Darfur.
Two of the vehicles were hit by bullets and one of the drivers was
injured. Three days later, 15 armed men forced their way into an aid
agency compound, assaulting a guard and stealing a vehicle. Dawn
Blalock, spokeswoman in Sudan for the UN’s humanitarian co-ordination
body, OCHA, said: ‘Security has always been an issue but what has
changed in the last year is that humanitarians are now direct targets.
It is now a daily occurrence.’”

“A spokesman for Médecins Sans Frontières [Doctors Without
Borders/MSF], which has more than 2,000 staff on the ground in Darfur,
said security problems were preventing them from providing the standard
of medical aid that is required. ‘It is very difficult for aid workers
to move outside the camps, which means it is hard to do exploratory
missions to areas where we think there is a need. The situation is very
bad and is not getting better,’ he said.” (The Independent [UK],
Steve Bloomfield, Africa Correspondent, July 6, 2007)

[10] Danish Church Aid (DanChurchAid/Denmark) declares bluntly in a
July 4, 2007 dispatch: “DanChurchAid continues to work in Darfur
despite the worsening security situation. 72,000 people are being
provided with access to clean water, latrines, and skills in good
hygiene practices. The situation in Sudan’s Western Darfur province is
worsening by the day.”

[11] “[Oxfam spokesman Alun Macdonald declared from Khartoum that
Darfur] ‘is certainly the most dangerous it has been.’ ‘Every
place we work has had a security incident in the last three months. If
it was to get much worse, we would certainly have to consider if we can
stay at all.’” (Reuters [dateline London], June 19, 2007)

[12] “British aid agency Oxfam said on Saturday [June 16, 2007] it
was withdrawing permanently from Gereida in Sudan’s Darfur region, home
to the largest population of Darfuris driven from their homes over four
years of conflict. In a coordinated attack on three aid agency bases in
Gereida in December [2006], an aid worker was raped, an Oxfam staff
member badly beaten and others subjected to mock executions.” [ ]

“‘Despite our repeated requests, none of the perpetrators [from the
Minni Minawi rebel faction] have been held to account, none of the
assets stolen in the attack have been returned, and we have not received
credible assurances that similar attacks would not take place if we did
return,’ said Caroline Nursey, Oxfam’s Sudan programme manager.”
(Reuters [dateline: Khartoum], June 16, 2007)

[13] “Increasing violence in the western Sudanese region of Darfur
has cut aid workers’ access to affected civilians to its lowest level
since the early days of conflict, the British charity Oxfam said. As a
result, large parts of rural Darfur were now completely inaccessible for
aid agencies. Humanitarian workers and operations, it added, were
increasingly being targeted.”

[For a UN mapping of areas with limited or no humanitarian access, see
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/JBRN-6ZSCY8?OpenDocument]

“The worsening insecurity had forced many humanitarian agencies to
use helicopters. However, these tended to be limited to the larger towns
and camps. ‘In villages and rural areas we are often simply unable to
get there,’ Oxfam said.
Even inside the camps, it was becoming more insecure. ‘Armed men have
entered the camps to harass civilians and aid workers, steal vehicles
and loot equipment—all in broad daylight and without fear of getting
caught,’ the charity noted.”

“According to the statement, attacks on civilians had forced more
than 80,000 out of their homes in the first two months of 2007. ‘Many
of these people have had to flee for the second, third or even fourth
time as they desperately seek refuge and protection,’ it said. ‘Many
of the vast camps are already operating at capacity—some are the size
of cities and shelter around 100,000 people.’” [ ]

“The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said another 300
displaced families had arrived in Um Dhukum [West Darfur] last week.
‘A very visible consequence of the continued pace of displacement
is the swelling population of IDP [internally displaced persons]
camps—many of which can no longer absorb new arrivals,’ UNMIS
spokesman George Somerwill told reporters in the Sudanese capital of
Khartoum.” (UN Integrated Regional Information Networks [dateline:
Nairobi], June 11, 2007)

[14] [From an extensive interview published by the Yorkshire Post (UK)
of June 3, 2007. Jonathan Henry, project director for Doctors Without
Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Muhajariya, South Darfur,
spoke with blunt honesty in describing a situation he says “has
worsened since he arrived in 2005”:

“‘It is still a massive humanitarian disaster and the level of
suffering has become dramatically worse. We were the only agency in
Muhajariya when I left because the other organisation had evacuated
because of security.’ The town has come under heavy attack from
government-backed forces. But as is so often the case in times of war,
it is the innocent who suffer most. ‘When I left, 90 per cent of the
patients in our 60-bed hospital were women and children under five,’
says Henry.” [ ]

“‘There’s a lot of severe malnutrition, with children having lost
nearly half their body weight because they can’t access food, and they
can’t go and farm the land because it’s too dangerous. We are seeing an
increase in water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and respiratory
infections. Malaria is endemic in Darfur, we saw outbreaks of meningitis
and measles, and mortality rates are increasing.’”

The effects of uncontrolled violence are striking in Henry’s
account:

“‘We had staff abducted and seven were beaten despite them all
wearing the MSF T-shirts.’ When Muhajariya was attacked last October,
its population was about 47,000, but this has dwindled to 13,000. It is
a situation mirrored throughout Darfur where the number of
indiscriminate attacks has escalated. ‘These so-called militia on
camels with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades go into towns and torch
them shooting men, women and children.’” [ ]

“Henry warns the situation is becoming increasingly chaotic with many
refugees flooding into already over-populated areas. Many of the camps,
some spread over a 15-mile radius, consist of nothing more than a sea of
makeshift tents, with no protection from the elements or local militia.
‘Many of these refugees are dispersed among bushes in the middle of
the desert. They drink muddy water from pools full of bacteria that
carry water-borne diseases. They have no food because they’ve had to
abandon their land, they have no shelter in 50 degree heat and no health
care.’”

“‘I think we’re going to be there for a while to come. But unless the
agencies get improved access, it’s going to be very difficult to keep
delivering this medical response. There is massive fear and massive
insecurity in the everyday lives of these people,’ says Henry.”

Such accounts as we have are all the more important because of
Khartoum’s efforts to silence these voices:

“Most aid agencies in Darfur cannot speak openly about the
humanitarian situation in the violent west of Sudan for fear of
jeopardising their work or being thrown out, a Reuters AlertNet poll
showed on Thursday [May 24, 2007]. Four-fifths of those surveyed said
they could not talk about who was behind attacks on civilians and aid
workers in case they upset the government or suffered reprisals from
militias and rebels. More than two-thirds would not discuss rape.
‘Speaking about touchy issues might result in restrictions and an
order to leave the country which we do not want to risk, considering
many people depend upon our support,’ one agency told [Reuters].”
(May 24, 2007)

How, Secretary-General Ban, can you possibly discern in these numerous
reports “credible and considerable progress in helping resolve this
Darfur situation”? If you fail to speak honestly of the terrible human
suffering and destruction that are ongoing, if you fail to heed the
desperate pleas and anguished reports of humanitarian organizations, you
will not be facilitating diplomacy but betraying the profoundly
courageous and compassionate humanitarians who have committed and risked
so much. You will have betrayed them in deepest consequence. You will,
of course, have much company.

Moreover, Secretary-General Ban, to elide the realities of eastern Chad
from your responses to Darfur is culpable in equally dismaying ways.
Certainly these realities are well reported, if not as fully as we might
wish:

[15] [Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) recently
issued a particularly dire warning (“While attention is focused on
Darfur, an emergency situation is unfolding in eastern Chad,” June 8,
2007)]:

“In [eastern] Chad 150,000 IDPs are caught up in a growing
humanitarian crisis. Although an MSF survey has confirmed the emergency
situation, assistance is still largely insufficient and MSF is coming up
against numerous obstacles to increasing its activities. In eastern
Chad, repeated deadly attacks on villages over the past 18 months have
forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Grouped together
in camps where security is not always guaranteed, they live in basic
huts and lack food, water and access to medical care.” [ ]

“Until recently, the assistance provided by many organisations in
Chad was focused on the refugees arriving from Darfur and neglected the
IDP population. In April [2007] the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) finally launched a three
month emergency plan, but its objectives in terms of food, water and
shelter are inadequate. ‘In Goz Beida, the IDPs receive three to eight
litres of water per person per day, whereas they should have 20 litres.
Only around 100 malnourished children are receiving treatment, but our
survey estimated at least 2,000 children suffering from acute
malnutrition,’ explained Franck Joncret, MSF Head of Mission in Chad.
‘This policy of rationed aid for IDPs is unacceptable.’”

[16] Oxfam has also spoken out forcefully about the consequences of
Darfur’s ethnic violence spreading rapidly into Chad:

“‘The humanitarian crisis is quickly deteriorating with increased
needs because of the recent numbers of people forced to flee the
fighting,’ Oxfam said, pointing out that since last May [2006], ‘the
numbers of Chadians forced to flee the fighting in the eastern part of
the country has more than quadrupled, from 30,000 to 140,000.’”
(Agence France-Presse [dateline: N’Djamena, Chad], May 3, 2007)

The UN figure for Chadian Internally Displaced Persons is now, in early
July 2007, approximately 180,000 and rising rapidly.

[17] “The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has temporarily
suspended operations in an area of eastern Chad bordering Sudan’s Darfur
after attackers beat up two local employees, a WFP spokesman said on
Friday. The attack took place on Thursday [May 24, 2007] in Chad’s
Biltine district at the town of Iriba, from where WFP supplies food to
three UN-run camps sheltering 56,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled
fighting in Darfur.” [ ]

“‘We feel threatened and targeted and we really want to know that the
security situation will improve before we can become fully operational
again,’ [WFP spokesman Marcus] Prior said. UN relief agencies were
waiting for Chadian army reinforcements to arrive in Iriba.” (Reuters
[dateline: N’Djamena], May 25, 2007)

[18] The views of those Chadians most directly threatened have been
rendered with stark clarity:

“Chadian civilians displaced by violence in the east appealed for
United Nations military protection on Wednesday [March 26, 2007], but a
top UN official said political solutions were need to make peacekeeping
effective.” [ ]

“‘There is no security and we live in constant fear,’ Abderamane
Adam Issa, a displaced villager living in a camp at Gouroukoum near Goz
Beida in southeastern Chad, told Reuters during a visit by UN
humanitarian chief John Holmes. [ ] ‘If the Chadian government refuses
to send a force we will be killed. It’s that simple,’ Issa said,
adding he and many others would flee to other countries if violence did
not end.” (Reuters [dateline: Gouroukoum, eastern Chad], March 28,
2007).

[19] Shortly after the visit by UN humanitarian aid chief Holmes, word
emerged of an especially violent, and terribly revealing, attack on
civilians. The Los Angeles Times reported (April 11, 2007):

“In the latest sign that violence plaguing Darfur is spilling into
neighboring Chad, more than 200 Chadians were feared dead in an attack
against two remote farming villages near the Sudanese border, the UN’s
refugee agency said Tuesday [April 10, 2007]. Humanitarian workers who
reached the villages of Tiero and Marena on Sunday [April 8, 2007] found
mass graves, decomposing bodies, scores of dead livestock and hundreds
of torched huts, some still smoldering from the March 31, [2007]
attack.”

“‘The scale is mind-boggling,’ said Matthew Conway, Chad spokesman
for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who visited the
site. ‘Complete desolation and destruction. And the stench, my God,
the stench.’”

“The attacks were among the deadliest to hit southeastern Chad in 18
months, when violence from the Darfur region of western Sudan began
spilling over the border. The death toll is estimated between 200 and
400. Officials said exact figures are unclear because many victims had
been buried in common graves by the time humanitarian workers
arrived.”

Commenting on the spreading ethnically-targeted violence even before
the terrible events at Tiero and Marena, Matthew Conway of UNHCR
declared: “‘We are seeing elements that closely resemble what we saw
in Rwanda in the genocide of 1994.’” (The Observer [UK] [dateline:
Chad/Darfur], March 4, 2007).

UN workers are making comparisons to Rwanda, Secretary-General Ban, and
you blandly declare that you are making “credible and considerable
progress in resolving Darfur situation.” The stench is not simply of
rotting human flesh but of a ghastly mendacity and expediency.

Humanitarian indicators are terrifying as well:

[20] “Epicentre, MSF’s research and epidemiological survey centre,
carried out a survey at the end of May in the camps around Goz Beida.
This survey revealed that one child in five was suffering from acute
malnutrition and that the mortality rates from March 30 to May 20, 2007,
were catastrophic.” (Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres
(MSF),“While attention is focused on Darfur, an emergency situation is
unfolding in eastern Chad,” June 8, 2007)

“Mortality rates from March 30 to May 20, 2007 were catastrophic,”
Secretary-General Ban.

UN’s Darfur Humanitarian Profile No. 27 (representing the situation
as of April 1, 2007) found 4.2 million conflict-affected persons and
ominous developments.
Because of continuing violence, insecurity, and displacement, “the
good harvests for those who could plant during the 2006 agricultural
season have frequently been lost through theft and deliberate
destruction, leaving [people] entirely dependent on external food aid”
(Darfur Humanitarian Profile No. 27, page 8). Nutrition for children
under five, a highly sensitive barometer of overall food availability,
shows disturbing signs:

[21] “Admissions for children under five years of age into
Supplementary Feeding Centres (SFCs) across Darfur have almost doubled
during the [current] reporting period [January through March 2007]
compared to the previous three months [October through December 2006].
Similarly, admissions into Therapeutic Feeding Centres (TFCs) have
almost doubled during the reporting period” (page 10).

Although these numbers correlate with the early beginning of the
“hunger gap,” they are cause for concern and do much to explain
the consistent finding that “levels of malnutrition are consistently
higher in children of 6-29 months compared to 30-59 months.” Moreover,
DHP 27 reports concern over “three localized nutrition surveys have
been undertaken during the reporting period. Tearfund reported from Ed
Daien [South Darfur] (February 2007) an alarming rate of Global Acute
Malnutrition (GAM) of 21.9% and Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) of
3.9%” (page 11).

Perhaps one may be forgiven, Secretary-General Ban, for wishing that
you could look first-hand at those human beings in Chad who have
suffered the agonizing deprivation that produces Severe Acute
Malnutrition, and tell them that they should take comfort, for you have
overseen “credible and considerable progress in resolving the Darfur
situation.”

* Eric Reeves is a professor at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and has published extensively on Sudan. He can be reached at [email protected]; website : www.sudanreeves.org