U.N. appeals for $115 million humanitarian aid package for Sudan’s Darfur
BY EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS, April 13, 2004 (AP) — The United Nations launched an appeal Monday for $115 million in humanitarian aid for the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan, where the U.N. humanitarian chief says a scorched-earth campaign of ethnic cleansing is taking place.
The appeal, which replaces a $23 million drive launched in September, includes programs to provide food, health care, agricultural assistance, relief supplies, water, sanitation, education and protection for more than 700,000 people displaced since fighting erupted early last year.
On April 2, the United Nations also launched an appeal for over $30 million to aid 110,000 Sudanese refugees who fled to neighboring Chad.
The Sudanese government denies allegations by U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland and human rights groups that Arab militia groups, reportedly with Sudanese government backing, are engaged in ethnic cleansing against Africans in Darfur.
On Sunday, Sudan’s Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ibrahim Hamid said the government would welcome a high-level U.N. mission later this month to assess humanitarian needs in Darfur and would set up a committee to work out an emergency relief program.
A 10-member team led by Egeland will visit each of the three regions of Darfur on April 18-21, during a 45-day cease-fire signed Thursday by the government and rebels to allow humanitarian agencies into the area and to move toward a peace agreement.
Earlier this month, Egeland said aid workers had reached only about a third of the needy inside Sudan because of violence and government restrictions.
The conflict began in February 2003, when two rebel groups — the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement — took up arms, saying they were fighting for a share of power and wealth in Africa’s largest country.
The insurgency in Darfur intensified as peace talks between the government and a separate group of southern rebels fighting a 21-year-long civil war have inched toward their conclusion. Those talks are being held in Kenya.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Monday that field staff from U.N. agencies and humanitarian organizations have received “credible reports almost daily about widespread atrocities, grave violations of human rights, and forced depopulation of entire areas.”
“The targets of the campaign are the region’s black African population, especially the Fur, Zaghawas, and Massalit ethnic communities,” it said.