The international community has failed Darfur, allowing the situation to deteriorate into ”a really dangerous regional crisis”, Jan Egeland, the United Nations coordinator for humanitarian affairs said on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland.
At his final press conference before leaving office in mid-December, he said: ”We all failed to help when there was still time in 2004. The world woke up too late.”
The Sudanese government, rebels and neighbouring powers are playing with a ”powder keg”.
”It is very easy to start a war; it is very difficult to end it,” he added.
In Darfur, four million people now need emergency aid and two million people are internally displaced, according to the latest UN figures.
”Those who have spoken out in outrage on the situation in Gaza should have been really loud on Darfur. If there had been enough pressure earlier we would not have the situation on Darfur we have today,” said Egeland.
He spoke after the UN Human Rights Council, criticised for focusing on the Middle East and ignoring Darfur, passed a resolution on Tuesday urging all parties in the conflict to end violations and human rights abuses.
However, it rejected an amendment requiring greater action by the Sudanese government to protect all citizens, proposed by a group of mainly European Union members.
The council is currently holding its third regular session in Geneva. Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told council members on Wednesday that the levels of violence in Darfur have reached the ”horrific levels” of early 2004.
”The ongoing atrocities must stop,” she urged, saying there was growing evidence of more attacks by government-allied militia and of weapons being distributed to militia groups. Thousands of civilians have been killed in the fighting and the killings continued unabated, she added. — Sapa-dpa