British aid agency slams West over unfulfilled promises in Darfur

NAIROBI, Aug 11, 2004 (dpa) — A British charity working in Darfur said Wednesday that several Western countries had not honoured their promises to help fund humanitarian operations in the western Sudanese region.

Oxfam, which has 50 staff working on water and sanitation projects in Darfur, pointed at France, Italy, Spain and Japan, saying they had made substantial pledges to the humanitarian work in Darfur, but had so far given inadequately.

An Oxfam spokesman said he believed the reason was mainly political.

“Funds were found overnight for humanitarian operations in places like Iraq,” Oxfam’s Adrian Macintyre told Deutsche Presse Agentur, dpa, on the phone from Nyala in southern Darfur.

“When there is a political interest in a place, there is always money available.”

Other aid agencies contacted by dpa expressed the same opinions.

In March the United Nations appealed for 349 million U.S. dollars to help people affected by the violent conflict in Darfur. Only half of that money has so far been put forward by donor nations.

“More funds for Darfur could have an immense impact for hundreds of thousands of people here,” said Macintyre.

The U.N. has called the situation in Darfur the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. An estimated 1.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the 18-month conflict, and up to 50,000 people are believed to have died from violence, starvation or disease.

Several areas have been flooded since seasonal rains began in Darfur last month. Still water in the camps, where both animal and human waste floats around, has become a breeding ground for disease.

According to Oxfam, there is a serious concern about a possible cholera outbreak in Kalma camp in southern Darfur, where 70,000 displaced people live.

“We work around the clock to dig latrines and provide clean drinking water. We are doing what we can to prevent outbreaks of disease,” said Macintyre.

Meanwhile, the U.N. said there is “noticeable deterioration of access to the Darfur region” over the past week.

The U.N. is particularly concerned over restrictions the government of Sudan has put on aid flights by the World Food Programme and on hiring local medical staff.

The U.N. also said there have been several reported attacks by the Janjaweed in northern and southern Darfur over the past week. According to both Oxfam and the U.N., new people arrive at Kalma camp every day.

Some of the newcomers in Kalma told the U.N. that on August 1, the Janjaweed reportedly stopped a bus carrying 100 people, selected 14 non-arab passengers who were then ordered out of the bus and tossed into a burning fire. Among them was a five-year-old girl whose mother managed to pull her out of the fire.

Other U.N. reports say the Sudanese government has been using helicopter gunships in attacks in Darfur.

In a report released this week, the human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) echoed the allegations of continued atrocities in western Sudan.

HRW said the Janjaweed and government forces continue to assault and rape women and girls when they leave camps and villages.

Khartoum denies involvement and has repeatedly said the general situation in Darfur is improving.

Addressing a group of Darfurian women Tuesday, Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir was quoted by the state-run Sudanese Media Centre as saying that those who talk about atrocities in Darfur have their own agendas and to not really want to bring about peace in the region.

On July 30, the U.N. Security Council gave Khartoum 30 days to disarm the Janjaweed and improve the situation in Darfur, or risk sanctions.

Last week, a Plan of Action for Darfur was agreed upon by the U.N. and Sudan, with a somewhat softer content. Among other things, the Sudanese government has to set up safe areas to protect civilians.

The conflict within this arrangement, say several Darfur observers, is that parts of the Janjaweed militia has reportedly been incorporated into government forces, in reality making them the protectors of the civilians they have been accused of tormenting for the last year and a half.