UN Security Council mulls Sudan crisis
UNITED NATIONS, May 7 (AFP) — UN officials pressed the Security Council to take action in Sudan, where the government is accused of crimes against humanity in the troubled western region of Darfur.
Acting UN human rights chief Bertrand Ramcharan and James Morris, director of the World Food Programme, briefed the 15-nation council on Darfur, what the United Nations now calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
“This is taking place before our very eyes,” Ramcharan told reporters after the closed-door briefing. “No one can say they didn’t know.”
He accused the government of conducting a “reign of terror” and “repeated war crimes and crimes against humanity” by supporting militia and nomads who have been driving black Africans out of the region.
An estimated one million people have been displaced inside the country, and a UN report this week said the government was deliberately starving some. More than 100,000 others have fled across the border into Chad.
In a damning report released in Geneva, Ramcharan noted repeated attacks by militia and Sudanese troops on villages, including air raids and killings targeting men and boys.
The government in Sudan, Africa’s largest nation, is dominated by Arabs but the country is also home to large black ethnic groups like those in Darfur.
Morris said he had told the council that, with the rainy season approaching, the humanitarian situation risked going far beyond just a shortage of food but extended to water, sanitation, health care and more.
“They did grasp the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis,” Morris said.
Stuart Holliday, one of the US ambassadors to the United Nations, said the international community had come to a “fork in the road” over Darfur.
“We will not hesitate in continuing to address this issue in the Security Council should we not see progress,” he said.
“We’ll wait and see, and watch the responsibility of the government and other parties, other militia groups, in the coming weeks.” No action was taken, however, as Sudan is not officially on the council’s agenda.
The Darfur crisis started in the aftermath of a rebellion launched in the region in February 2003.
Khartoum has repeatedly denied the charges and Sudan’s UN ambassador Elfatih Mohamed Ahmed Erwa told reporters that his government was simply caught up in trying to fight a rebel insurgency.
“War is a war,” he said. “Maybe in some modern states they call it collateral damage but there — it’s a war.”