Japan to give 10,000 blankets to Darfur
November 6, 2007 (TOKYO) — Japan decided Tuesday to provide 10,000 blankets, water containers and other aid materials to Sudan’s Darfur region upon the request of the U.N. refugee agency, with the items expected to arrive around January or February as the first of their kind from any country, Japanese government and U.N. officials said.
“Japan hopes this contribution of relief aid materials will help improve the humanitarian conditions for the refugees in Darfur and create an atmosphere for peace negotiations through dialogue,” the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the Cabinet approved the plan.
The items, namely 10,000 each of blankets, sleeping mats and jerrycans, and 4,000 plastic sheets, will be shipped from Japan’s overseas stockpile base in Sharjah of the United Arab Emirates to Port Sudan, and then transported by land to various distribution locations in Darfur by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Japan will provide the 45.4 tons of aid materials for free, while the UNHCR will bear the transportation cost. Children, women and the elderly among the refugees will be given priority in receiving the items, the officials said.
“The timing of this provision of emergency relief goods is extremely valuable,” Hajime Kishimori, deputy representative of the UNHCR Representation in Japan, told Kyodo News, underscoring the importance of the aid as security conditions remain poor in the area.
Kishimori said Japan’s overseas stockpile base, where a warehouse was newly established in 2006 to enable more speedy and less costly supply of humanitarian relief, was a major reason why the UNHCR made its request to Japan instead of trying to procure them by itself or from other nations.
While various countries have contributed financial support to tackling the Darfur crisis, including in response to an UNHCR supplementary appeal this January, Japan is the first country to send aid in the form of actual goods for the refugees in Darfur, said Shinichiro Kobayashi, director of the secretariat of the Japanese government’s International Peace Cooperation Headquarters.
“It will take about two to three months for the items to be delivered to the distribution locations. I hope they can arrive in January in time to serve as New Year gifts for the refugees,” a Japanese official said.
The relief items will be provided under Japan’s International Peace Cooperation Law.
Prior to the setting up of the overseas stockpile base in Sharjah, delivering humanitarian aid from Japan to Middle Eastern and African areas, such as Afghanistan, Chad and Rwanda, was time-consuming and costly due to the distance.
The shipment to Darfur is the second operation from the Sharjah base, following the first to Sri Lanka last year, the officials said.
An estimated more than 2 million people have been forced to move out of their homes, either internally displaced or fleeing to Chad, due to the conflict between the Sudanese government and antigovernment parties, and some 200,000 others have been killed.
The catastrophe continues with reports of ongoing attacks on residents, burglaries and sexual violence.
In October 2004, Japan provided 700 tents to the UNHCR relief efforts in Chad to accommodate Sudanese refugees who had fled to the neighboring country.
(Kyodo)