The charity Save the Children said on Tuesday that it was withdrawing from Sudan’s Darfur region, because the worsening security situation made work too dangerous for its 350 staff.
Four Save the Children workers have been killed in Darfur recently, including two last week whose vehicle was fired on in an attack blamed on rebels.
The decision by one of the largest aid operations in Darfur came as peace talks were suspended yesterday and violent incidents escalated.
Fighting in Sudan’s vast western region has displaced nearly two million people and killed tens of thousands since rebels took up arms in early 2003.
”We are devastated that we cannot continue to offer healthcare, nutrition and child protection to approximately 250,000 children and family members in Darfur,” said the Save the Children chief, Mike Aaronson.
”However, we could not continue to expose our staff to unacceptable risks as they go about their humanitarian duties.”
Aaronson said that he visited Darfur last week. ”We came to the very reluctant conclusion that we had passed the threshold of what we could ask our staff to do.”
The crisis in Darfur stems from February 2003, when two Sudanese African rebel groups took up arms to fight for more power and resources from the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
The Sudanese government responded, international observers claim, by backing the Janjaweed, an Arab militia accused of targeting civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson. The US accuses the Janjaweed of genocide.
Disease and hunger have killed 70 000 people in the Darfur region since March, according to the World Health Organisation, and the UN refers to the situation in Darfur as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
The faltering peace talks concluded without success on Tuesday. The Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who chairs the African Union, urged both sides to stop fighting so peace efforts could resume in January.
Although both the rebels and the Sudanese government said separately that they would not initiate violence, the failure to get them to sign an agreement prompted fears that a new round of fighting was imminent.
The peace process suffered a further setback on Monday when a previously unknown rebel group, the Sudanese National Movement for the Eradication of Marginalisation, claimed a weekend attack on a Darfur oil pumping station.
Fifteen people died in the attack, police said. Sudan produces 320 000 barrels a day of crude oil and plans to increase that to more than half a million barrels a day next year.
The UN security council has not imposed any sanctions so far. Several members refuse to back penalties, with China warning it would use its veto.
Oxfam said yesterday it intends to continue its work in Darfur, although it faces major difficulties. – Guardian Unlimited