Arab League delegation visits Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region

KHARTOUM, May 5 (AFP) — An Arab League delegation is visiting west Sudan’s strife-hit Darfur region to review humanitarian needs a day after UN officials warned of a crisis of “enormous proportions”, a report said Wednesday.

League Secretary General Amr Mussa ordered the mission to examine how the member states could help alleviate the humanitarian crisis, Al Ayam daily reported.

“The Arab League has a major role to play towards the Sudan and the Sudan question has always been on the top of the league’s concerns,” Samir Hassan Hosni, the league’s official in charge of Sudan affairs, was quoted as saying.

“We are concerned with the Sudan in general and with Darfur in particular.”

Hosni toured refugee camps Tuesday and was also expected to travel to camps in neighbouring Chad.

Darfur has been ravaged by fighting between government-backed militias and rebel movements since February last year. About 10,000 people have died in the violence although a ceasefire is now in place.

Several international organisations have accused Arab militias allied to the government, known as the Janjawid, of terrorising the population.

They have been accused of attacking inhabitants, killing them or forcing them to flee to government-run camps or to neighbouring Chad in a campaign that has fuelled allegations of ethnic cleansing and atrocities.

Up to one million people have been displaced and more than 100,000 of them have sought refuge in Chad, according to the United Nations.

UN World Food Programme executive director James Morris said Tuesday the “humanitarian crisis in the Darfour region is of enormous proportions”.

Hosni said the Arab League appealed to member states to dispatch urgent humanitarian assistance to Darfur three weeks ago.

So far aid had been forthcoming from a number of Arab states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, he said.