Stars to sing for Darfur at London UNHCR concert

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) – Stars from round the world will sing next week in London’s Royal Albert Hall at a UN concert to raise vital funds for starving refugees in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

The singers, including Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall, Pretender Chrissie Hynde, Greek tenor Mario Frangoulis and disco star Jocelyn Brown, will perform the songs of Cole Porter accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

“Living conditions in the camps are dire. But even worse, people are too frightened even to leave them, let alone return home,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) field officer Jake Morland told Reuters.

The concert, organised by the UNHCR, is being staged to help displaced people in a region the size of France, which the U.N. has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

More than 1.6 million people have been driven from their homes in Darfur by violence, which pits rebels against government forces and Arab militias, the latter accused of widespread human rights violations.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed by violence, starvation and disease.

“The challenge for the UN refugee agency now is to provide protection,” Morland said.

“If we are slow and we don’t get funds, and that is what this concert is for, we may see further human suffering, further human rights abuses and the continued displacement of millions of people in Sudan.”

Some 200,000 refugees have already crossed into Chad where the UNHCR is also struggling to cope.

“If conditions don’t improve in Darfur, I fear that there will be a serious increase in the trickle of people crossing into Chad which could destabilise it,” Morland said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that up to three million people in the region could be dependent on food aid next year.

Morland, who returned from Darfur two weeks ago, said many people in the camps were farmers who needed peace and security to return to the land to plant their crops.

“The main planting season is in June next year. If the farmers mean to return they need to make plans now. But they also need a period of several months of stability before people will start to return,” he added.