The top United Nations humanitarian official warned on Friday that relief efforts in Darfur could collapse within weeks unless the government makes good on a peace deal and donors fund aid work in the troubled Sudanese region.
Jan Egeland, the top humanitarian aid official, told the UN Security Council that the government must lift restrictions on aid groups if they are to do their job properly, and said relief work in the region faced a $389-million shortfall in funding.
”The next few weeks will be make or break,” Egeland said. ”We can turn the corner toward reconciliation and reconstruction, or see an even worse collapse of our efforts to provide protection and relief to millions of people.”
Egeland spoke as the United Nations announced that Secretary General Kofi Annan will dispatch Lakhdar Brahimi, a highly respected envoy and a top peacekeeping official, to Sudan in a bid to persuade the government to allow a United Nations
peacekeeping force for Darfur.
Annan has turned to Brahimi, the former foreign minister of Algeria, for more than a decade to lead some of the United Nations’ most challenging tasks.
Brahimi was Annan’s envoy in Afghanistan and Iraq before retiring in December.
He also oversaw elections that brought Nelson Mandela to power and led a team that recommended sweeping changes to the UN peacekeeping system.
So far, the Sudanese government has refused to grant visas so an assessment team can get to Sudan to prepare for the United Nations force. A 7 300-strong African Union force in place now has been largely unable to halt violence there despite a peace deal signed two weeks ago to end fighting that has killed nearly 200 000 people and displaced 2,5-million since 2003.
Egeland, who visited Darfur recently, told the council that the number of displaced people in South Darfur had tripled in the last four months to between 100 000-120 000. Local officials have blocked fuel deliveries and the movement of aid workers has been severely restricted.
In addition, areas of eastern Chad that border Darfur have been engulfed in turmoil, Egeland said. Aid groups have been forced to cut back staff and relief work because of insecurity and funding shortfalls.
Armed groups in Chad have recruited refugees and other displaced people, including children. The situation in eastern Chad has gotten so bad that people are actually fleeing from there to Darfur.
”In Darfur and Eastern Chad, humanitarian relief constitutes a lifeline for close to four million people,” he said. ”Attacking relief workers or impeding their work means attacking that lifeline.”
Egeland’s comments echoed remarks he made a month ago, when he said the relief effort in Sudan’s Darfur region was threatened unless foreign donors contribute more cash and the Sudanese government lifts punishing restrictions on aid workers.
He and other top UN officials had hoped that the peace deal would bring relief to the millions of displaced. Yet the fighting has continued: earlier on Wednesday, the UN said armed militia have killed at least 11 people and wounded many more in raids on Darfur villages this week.
Splinter rebel groups have refused to endorse the May 5 peace agreement. Some of the rebels who rejected the peace accord enjoy strong support in the refugee camps of Darfur, a vast, arid region in western Sudan.
On the positive side, Egeland told the media after his briefing that he sensed a ”new tone” from Vice-President Ali Osman Taha and the governor of South Darfur.
”They said that they wanted to have a new relationship with us, the international community,” Egeland said. ”They’ve said they will lift the restrictions that we see they have imposed and they say they will work with us to also try and improve security in many areas.”
He also said that new financial contributions meant Sudan faced a 60% funding shortfall, rather than 80% as before. But aid groups were still cutting back.
”Feeding centres have had to be closed, food cannot be distributed, staff are being reduced, teachers in camps are no longer being paid, and many IDPs no longer have access to free health care in hospitals,” Egeland said.
After his mission to Sudan, Egeland said he was approving a $21-million grant from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund to cover urgent needs. – Sapa-AP