Attacks against aid workers put Darfur relief operations at risk – UN
March 26, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – Intolerable attacks against aid workers in Sudan’s Darfur jeopardize vital humanitarian operations in the war-wracked region, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator said today.
In a statement released in Khartoum, Ameerah Haq said the humanitarian community in Sudan condemns all acts of violence taking place in Darfur, where rebels have been fighting Government forces and allied militia since 2003.
The statement further said that the community calls upon those responsible to immediately cease all attacks, calls for the immediate release of those abducted and urges that no impunity is given to those who continue to target humanitarians anywhere in Sudan.
On Monday Mohamed Ali, a driver contracted by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), was shot dead and his assistant was seriously injured by unidentified assailants while travelling on the main route into Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state.
That attack followed the deadly stabbing of two other WFP-contracted drivers on the weekend in Unity state in southern Sudan, and is only the latest in a string of hijackings, abductions and killings in the country and particularly in Darfur.
Yesterday WFP’s representative in Sudan, Kenro Oshidari, deplored the latest attacks and warned that the agency’s contracted trucking companies and drivers were facing daily acts of violence.
29 drivers with World Food Programme contract trucking partners and four others working with the State Water Corporation, a key partner of UNICEF, remain unaccounted for having been abducted at gunpoint in separate incidents.
There are more than 14,000 humanitarian workers in Darfur and many thousands more in other parts of Sudan. They are supported by technical experts, civilian drivers and ancillary workers without whom life-saving humanitarian activities would not be possible. The vast majority of these are Sudanese citizens.
The kidnapping of four State Water Corporation staff working with UNICEF on 20 March means that 180,000 people in North Darfur risk not receiving clean water this year, said the statement.
The hijacking of 56 World Food Programme contracted trucks – currently resulting in 36 missing trucks and the abduction of 29 drivers – has slowed food delivery to Darfur, threatening the ability of WFP to provide timely food assistance to more than 2 million people throughout the coming rainy season.
Earlier this year a hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping mission known as UNAMID was deployed to try to quell the suffering and violence but so far only about 9,000 uniformed personnel are in place, well below the 26,000 expected when the operation reaches full capacity.
(ST)