Sudan Needs $1.5 Billion to Tip the Balance Towards Peace

NEW YORK, New York, December 1, 2004 (ENS) - The United Nations and its partners in Sudan Tuesday appealed for $1.5 billion in urgent aid for 2005, more than double this year’s amount. The new appeal covers funds for food aid, water and environmental sanitation, health, mine action, and $600 million for lifesaving activities in the dangerous western Darfur region.

In Darfur, nearly 1.7 million people have been displaced, and Jingaweit militias are accused of killing and raping thousands of villagers after the rebels took up arms last year to demand a greater share of economic resources. The UN has called Darfur the scene of the world’s current worst humanitarian crisis.

Refugees from Darfur villages encamped in eastern Chad (Photo courtesy WFP)

“The long suffering people of the country have rarely faced a period of greater opportunity for peace in the last 20 years," Pronk said. "The primary responsibility to realize this future lies with their leaders – who must not fail in this moment of truth.”

But, he urged, “The international aid community also has an important and irreplaceable role to play.”

The $1.5 billion appeal is tied to a Work Plan for Sudan. Roughly half the total amount is earmarked for food aid, and the Work Plan includes 304 projects to be implemented by 49 agencies and nongovernmental organizations. But before this work can proceed, hostilities must be eased.

But instead, hostilities are intensifying. The rebel Sudan Liberation Army seized the town of Tawila in North Darfur a week ago in what Pronk called a clear violation of ceasefire and security accords with the government.

Ishak al-Bakr Abdul Mowla’s crop failed this year, making it even more difficult to feed his three wives and 16 children. His village in North Darfur was burned last year. (Photo courtesy WFP)

The WFP withdrawal leaves 300,000 displaced people cut off from all aid.

Due to the reported presence of unexploded ordnance in and around Tawila, the UN Mine Action Service is conducting an assessment before reopening access for humanitarian operations.

Still, the hope of peace for Sudan is still alive. U.S. State Department official Charlie Snyder told reporters last week that when the Khartoum government and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) signed the memorandum of understanding November 10 that commits both sides to conclude a peace agreement by the years' end, they created the conditions for a peaceful resolution of all of Sudan's intractable political disputes, including Darfur.

Snyder, the State Department's senior representative on Sudan, was a facilitator of negotiations between Khartoum and the SPLM in Naivasha, Kenya, an ongoing process funded in part by the U.S. government over the past two years.

On November 22, WFP reported the first transport of U.S. government food assistance through Libya, along a humanitarian corridor across the Sahara desert, to reach 200,000 Darfurian refugees in eastern Chad. According to WFP, more than 6,500 metric tons of sorghum, cornmeal, lentils, vegetable oil, and corn soya blend arrived in Benghazi port in early November and were transported 2,800 kilometers by trucks to Chad. The newly opened corridor through Libya is a vital link, allowing WFP to increase the amount of food deliveries to Chad.

Civil war has gripped Sudan since 1983, causing more than two million deaths. The crisis in Darfur, which began as a rebellion in the early 1990s, has now flared up into a genocidal campaign that Khartoum is reluctant to stop because of its dependence on the Jingaweit militia, as analysts such as former Sudanese diplomat Francis Deng have pointed out.

Apart from Darfur, where 2.2 million people are affected by war, including the 1.7 million internally displaced people (IDPs), the appeal seeks over $550 million for recovery, development and humanitarian programs in the south, where prospects of peace between the government and rebels could herald a flood of returning refugees.

An abandoned tribal village between Geneina and Sisi attacked and burned by government of Sudan military forces and militias - the Jingaweit. (Photo courtesy USAID)

The appeal includes funds for rehabilitation of transport infrastructure, shelter and supplies, education and training, rule of law and good governance, return and reintegration of IDPs and refugees, and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants.

“Without adequate support to save the lives of millions of vulnerable Sudanese and helping to rebuild destroyed communities, the chances of a lasting peace diminish,” Pronk said.

Starting on December 10, in continuation of efforts to achieve a political solution to the Darfur conflict, the African Union will convene in Abuja, Nigeria the Fourth Round of the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on Darfur.

The Sudanese Parties - the Government of the Sudan, the Justice and Equality Movement, and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) will attend the Abuja talks.