U.N. wins aid for Darfur, Khartoum under pressure
By Richard Waddington
GENEVA, June 3 (Reuters) – The United Nations on Thursday mobilised donor countries against a mounting humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur, but a senior U.S. official warned that hundreds of thousands may be already doomed to die.
Donor countries, gathered for an appeal by the United Nations for an immediate $236 million in aid, also told Khartoum to rein in militia gangs blamed for campaigns of rape and pillage across the vast western region of Africa’s largest country.
“Our appeal is to the government to get its act together and to get those people (the militias) under control quickly,” said James Morris, head of the U.N.’s World Food Programme.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes and abandoned farms, mostly to avoid the government-backed Janjaweed gangs, which U.N. officials have accused of ethnic cleansing.
The refugees’ plight is certain to become more desperate with this month’s onset of the rainy season, which makes roads impassable and speeds the spread of infectious disease.
The head of U.S. government agency USAID warned that 300,000 people in an area of nearly seven million might already be condemned to die from hunger and disease, regardless of the success of the U.N. call for help.
The feared toll was based on studies of malnutrition and mortality rates in Sudan, Andrew Natsios, USAID administrator, told a news conference.
“If we get relief in, we could lose a third of a million. If we do not, it could be a million,” he said. “But that is not a prediction, and we hope it is not true,” he added.
RACE AGAINST TIME
The U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the appeal would help more than one million displaced people inside Sudan, another 150,000 refugees over the border in Chad and up to 800,000 others who were likely to be affected by the conflict by the end of the year.
“It is a race against the clock,” said OCHA chief Jan Egeland. “The biggest human drama anywhere in the world is unfolding in Darfur.”
The United States announced $188 million in aid over the next 18 months and diplomats said other countries also made offers to the closed-door meeting, but no figures were immediately available.
The violence intensified over a year ago when rebels allied to those active in the unsettled south accused the Sudanese government of neglecting the impoverished area and arming Arab militias to loot and burn African villages.
Although the government is close to a final peace deal in the south, an April ceasefire in Darfur has failed to hold.
At a separate meeting in Geneva, attended by a number of governments, including the United States, members of the European Union and African Union, representatives of the Sudanese government and rebels undertook to ensure access for humanitarian aid.
“Both sides agreed, but now people want to see it happen in practice,” said Andy Andrea, a spokesman for the Centre for Humanitarian dialogue, which hosted the session.
Citing reports from refugees, Egeland said that while there appeared to be fewer clashes between regular Sudanese forces and rebels, the militias had stepped up their attacks.
“The IDPs report more atrocities, more rape, more pillage. These are women and children, and those doing it are men armed with Kalashnikovs,” he said.
The aid target for the first 90 days was to feed up to one million people across Darfur, which is as big as France, provide water and basic medicines and monitor human rights.