United Nations Stretches Helping Hands to Darfur

NEW YORK, New York, October 27, 2004 (ENS) - The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to hold a two day meeting next month in Kenya to focus on the civil conflicts engulfing Sudan. This meeting is only the 11th time in its history that the Security Council has met away from UN Headquarters in New York, reflecting the serious nature of the Sudanese situation.

The Council will meet November 18 and 19 November in Nairobi, where peace talks have been taking place in an attempt to resolve the lengthy civil war in southern Sudan.

Council members will discuss the conflict in western Sudan’s Darfur region, where more than 1.65 million people have been displaced from their homes and tens of thousands of villagers have been killed or have died from hunger or disease.

Mariam Abdullah Niel, 30, is the widowed mother of 10 children. They lost the man of the family in May, when a troop of Janjaweed attacked her village on North Darfur’s savannah. (Photo by Barry Came courtesy WFP)

A new report from the United Nations in the Sudan released on Friday says that the number of people in Darfur now in critical need of relief has risen nearly 10 percent in the past month, even as the humanitarian response across the region intensifies.

This increase means that two million of Darfur’s six million people are now affected by the crisis. Of the two million, some 1.6 million are internally displaced persons. These figures do not include some 200,000 refugees from Darfur now in Chad.

“Thousands more people have been abandoning their homes after fighting and violence in their villages. Though we are steadily increasing the amount of aid we deliver to Darfur, we are constantly running to catch up with growing needs,” said Jan Egeland, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Map showing the region in conflict (Map courtesy World Food Programme)

They are living in makeshift shelters, and basic supplies such as food and water donated by nearby residents are running "dangerously thin," OCHA said.

Tens of thousands of people who need aid are not accessible at any given time due to insecurity, including banditry, fighting between government and rebel forces, and militia attacks, the UN agency said.

The harassment of relief workers has been on the rise for several weeks, limiting the work of humanitarian agencies. The killing of two staff with Save the Children-UK in a landmine explosion on October 10 and skirmishes between troops and rebel forces have increased tension in the region.

In the past week, unidentified men - some in civilian clothing and others in uniform - have attacked commercial trucks in South Darfur delivering food on contract to the UN World Food Programme. In one case, 36 trucks were attacked on October 15 about 70 kilometers (43 miles) west of Kass. The trucks were well marked with WFP flags and stickers. While no WFP food was looted, the assailants beat some drivers and took their personal belongings. To avoid such attacks, drivers are using longer alternative routes.

Attacks on locations with internally displaced people (IDP) are also reported, with people fleeing to other IDP sites. WFP and its partners on October 14 postponed planned food distributions in Hashaba and Bashoum in South Darfur after attacks in the area.

UN aid workers are stuck on the road, easy prey for bandits. (Photo by Barry Came courtesy WFP)

In light of growing insecurity in North Darfur, UN Security declared several areas near El-Fasher and Kutum "No-Go" areas. This hampers the ability of the World Food Programme to deliver food to some 160,000 people in these areas, the agency said.

Nearly 22 percent of children under the age of five are malnourished and almost half of all families across western Sudan do not have enough food, the World Food Programme said on Tuesday, issuing the findings of its first survey of internally displaced people and residents.

The nutrition and food security assessment found almost half the households in Darfur are not consuming enough food to sustain an active and healthy life. Internally displaced persons are "markedly worse off than local residents," the WFP.

Only six percent of people in camps are able to obtain sufficient food by their own means and are not relying on food assistance, in contrast to 46 percent of local residents, the survey found.

“While much has been done for months now to feed as many people as possible in Darfur, the survey underlines how much remains to be done,” said Ramiro Lopes da Silva, WFP country director in Sudan. “But food alone is not enough. The response also has to be significantly stronger on water, sanitation and health.”

Zanobou Ibrahim, was born a refugee 45 days ago at Farchana camp. Her mother, Habiba Abdallah, relies on food from aid agencies. (Photo by Nancy Palus courtesy WFP)

“But the news is not all bad," said Egeland. "Aid agencies have made tremendous strides over the past month by boosting their presence on the ground and reaching more people living in previously inaccessible territory."

The number of humanitarian personnel in the region has tripled since July. More than 6,000 national and international aid workers are now battling hunger and disease in Darfur, he reported.

“In absolute terms, the humanitarian community is assisting more people with life saving aid," Egeland said. "As we gear up, we are able to reach isolated areas where thousands of families are desperate for assistance.”

Last month, an estimated 70 percent of the people affected by conflict was provided with food; 52 percent received shelter and other critical survival items; 40 percent had access to clean water; 42 percent had access to latrines; and 67 percent were covered by primary health care facilities.

United Nations humanitarian operations in Darfur and Chad remain underfunded, with nearly $190 million still needed through the end of 2004.