Access to Darfur for aid workers improves despite persistent problems

NAIROBI, Jun 01, 2004 (IRIN) — Just over a week after the government of Sudan said it would allow aid workers into the western region of Darfur within 48 hours, humanitarian access was “fairly smooth,” according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Khartoum.

OCHA had managed to deploy seven field staff members since 20 May, several of whom had been waiting for up to two months for a travel permit, said Ramesh Rajasingham, the head of OCHA Sudan. In one or two cases, visas were still being delayed, but these were being followed up, he said, noting that in Southern Darfur it appeared that the message had not filtered down to local authorities by last Saturday.

At the same time, however, some relief assistance, equipment and vehicles essential to the delivery of aid were still being delayed, said Rajasingham.

Khartoum recently announced that with effect from 24 May it would issue visas within 48 hours and waive the requirement for travel permits to Darfur, which had been causing huge delays in delivering aid.

Staff already in Darfur still had to give the local humanitarian aid commissioners 24-hour notice when they were travelling outside the three main towns of Nyala, Al-Junaynah and Al-Fashir, but the procedures seemed to be working in general and travel was being undertaken “fairly freely”, Rajasingham added.

A more serious impediment to the delivery of aid was the reported “requirement” by Khartoum that agencies only use local NGOs to deliver aid, he told IRIN.

The new policy had “hampered effective distribution of assistance, including food”, the UN reported last week, stating that the existing local NGOs were limited in number and lacked the necessary capacity.

Rajasingham confirmed that capacity building of local NGOs was a priority but, but added: “This is an emergency and we have to use the best and most reliable capacity on the ground. We have to rely on partners who can deliver rapidly and reliably, whoever they are,” he said.

The advocacy group Refugees International (RI) said last week that Khartoum was continuing to place “obstacles” in the way of agencies seeking to respond to the Darfur crisis by requiring relief supplies to be transported on Sudanese trucks and distributed by Sudanese agencies.

The World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed that it had only been able to deliver three quarters of the food it planned to distribute in May, due to a combination of insecurity, bureaucratic and logistical problems. “We are not reaching as many people as we ought to and we don’t have much time left,” commented WFP spokeswoman, Laura Melo.

MSF warned last month that the entire population of Darfur, numbering several million, was “teetering on the verge of mass starvation” as a direct result of the conflict.

A further problem was Khartoum’s insistence that all medical supplies being shipped into Sudan needed to be tested before they were used, RI added.

“The only plausible explanation of these regulations is that the government of Sudan, despite its repeated pledges to the contrary, simply does not want a large-scale presence of international agencies in Darfur,” said RI.

A 20 May statement from the Sudanese foreign and humanitarian affairs ministries said Khartoum had an “open-ended vision to guarantee and facilitate humanitarian efforts” in Darfur. “In fulfillment of its responsibilities and obligations toward its citizens and to ensure their wellbeing”, Khartoum “recognises the crucial need for immediate humanitarian assistance in the region and is determined to alleviate the suffering that has resulted as a by-product of the war”.

But the US Agency for International Development (USAID) reported last week that Khartoum was “interfering” in humanitarian aid efforts. Government officials had questioned relief workers on their reporting of human rights abuses, told agencies not to carry out protection activities, and threatened to expel organisations failing to comply with restrictions, it said.

In May an OCHA official was expelled and NGOs were accused of supporting the rebellion in Darfur.

Khartoum also required 72-hour advance notification for passengers travelling on UN flights to Darfur, which was “an impediment to the rapid deployment of emergency staff and equipment,” USAID added.

Meanwhile, no UN agencies were delivering aid to rebel-held areas because of a mixture of insecurity and a lack of permission from Khartoum to access the areas, according to OCHA.

USAID said that armed Janjawid militia were continuing to attack civilians in all three states of Darfur and that killings, rapes, beatings, looting and burning of homes were still being reported. In Northern Darfur State, attacks on villages had only decreased because “a significant number” of villages had already been destroyed, while attacks on camps for internally displaced persons were continuing, it said.

On 28 May, the parties to the conflict agreed to the deployment of African Union (AU) ceasefire monitors in Darfur. Desmond Orjiako, an AU spokesman, told IRIN that the first 10 monitors, comprising seven military observers and three support staff, would be deployed on Wednesday. A further 90, including 60 soldiers, would be deployed as soon as conditions were ready and vehicles and accommodation had been organised.

The ceasefire monitors would be based in al-Fashir, northern Darfur, but would travel within the three states, he told IRIN.

The status of the 45-day renewable ceasefire, which has been broken numerous times, has remained unclear since it expired on 26 May. The UN said it had received no information regarding a renewal or further peace talks.

On Friday, the political director of the Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army, Abu al-Qasim told IRIN the SLA was continuing to respect it, “so as to let the organisations provide aid for people in the region”, but that nothing formal had been arranged.