‘Race against time’ to get aid to Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur: UNICEF head
KHARTOUM, June 15 (AFP) — The United Nations children’s fund (UNICEF) director said a humanitarian disaster was looming in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region and it was a “race against time” to get aid there before the rainy season sets in.
Carol Bellamy, after a two-day tour, told a press conference “we must do all we can to avert a humanitarian disaster.
“As the rainy seasons begins, it is now a race against time to provide children and their families with basic life-saving services such as clean water, sanitation, nutrition, shelter and health care.”
In Geneva, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) appealed for 55.8 million dollars of extra funds to help refugees forced to flee Darfur into neighbouring Chad.
Bellamy said half a million children were threatened with malnutrion and disease.
“During my visit to Darfur, it was clear that people are continuing to flee their villages. The number of displaced people, estimated at close to one million, continues to grow.”
“I was struck by stories of women who fled their homes with their children. Many said their husbands were killed.”
On Monday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur — where Sudanese forces and Khartoum-backed Arab militia have been accused of massive human rights abuses in fighting an armed rebellion — required immediate attention.
“This is a humanitarian emergency of catastrophic proportions that must be addressed, not tomorrow, but now,” Annan said on the sidelines of the 11th UN Conference on Trade and Development in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“And the world must insist that the Sudanese authorities neutralize and disarm the militia, who continue to terrorize the population. They must also allow humanitarian supplies.”
The crisis was prompted by an uprising that started in February 2003, with rebels complaining that Khartoum had neglected their impoverished region.
The uprising led to a fierce, and widely condemned, retaliation by government forces and allied militia.
Sunday, following a tour of refugee camps near Nyala, in Southern Darfur, Bellamy announced that she would call on donors to increase aid to the region, where an estimated 10,000 people have died since February 2003.
The UNHCR said the numbers who have fled Darfur for Chad could reach 200,000 by the end of the year, and its priority was to transfer refugees on the border before the rains start to make roads inaccessible in July.
“Any delay would mean that the refugees continue to be exposed to protection hazards, ranging from military conscriptions, sexual and gender-based violence to lack of access to basic rights for assistance,” it said.
The organisation has already transported some 100,000 refugees from improvised refugee camps on the border zone to eight new camps in the interior of Chad.
Between 50,000-90,000 refugees are still in the border zone and more are continuing to arrive.
The United States on Monday renewed harsh criticism of the Sudanese government for allegedly hampering relief efforts in Darfur.
“We’re deeply concerned that, despite assurances from the government of Sudan that they are providing the humanitarian access, that there is, in fact, still considerable blockages to getting aid to the people in need,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
He said Khartoum continued to deny the release of vehicles needed to transport food and other assistance to Darfur, was refusing in some cases to release communications equipment needed by relief workers to coordinate their work and delayed the distribution of foreign food which has been sent by ship to Port Sudan.
In addition, Boucher accused Sudanese authorities of continuing “to harass or delay humanitarian workers seeking to administer to the needy”.