July was the most dangerous month for humanitarian workers in Sudan’s Darfur region and afforded the worst access to those in need since conflict began three-and-a-half years ago, aid agencies said on Tuesday.
Violence in refugee camps sheltering 2,5-million people in Darfur has rocketed since an unpopular peace deal was signed in May and threatens to jeopardise the world’s largest aid operation, the joint statement by four major aid agencies said.
”July was the worst month of the three-year-old conflict in terms of attacks on aid workers and operations. Eight humanitarian workers were violently killed in Darfur during July,” said the statement by Care International, Oxfam, World Vision and the International Rescue Committee.
All those killed were Sudanese.
There are 14 000 aid workers, 1 000 of them international staff, trying to help Darfuris who fled their homes to escape the rape, pillage and murder plaguing the region since rebels took up arms against the government in 2003 and militias were recruited to put down the rebellion.
”Tensions within many of the camps for the region’s … displaced people have steadily risen due to opposition to the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA),” the statement said.
Only one of three rebel negotiating factions signed the African Union-brokered deal in May. Tens of thousands of Darfuris have protested against the deal in Khartoum and in the camps, saying it does not meet their basic demands.
They want more security, compensation for war victims, political posts and a monitoring role in disarming the mainly Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, blamed for most of the violence that Washington calls genocide.
Half of July’s deaths have been in Darfur’s squatter camps as angry war victims have taken their frustrations out on aid workers and the African Union forces deployed to protect them.
”The agencies call upon those responsible for protecting civilians and creating a secure environment for aid operations, particularly the AU, to prioritise having a 24-hour presence and regular patrols in areas around the camps,” the statement added.
The agencies said the AU appeared to have scaled down its operations since the deal. The under-funded and struggling mission supports a United Nations takeover, but Khartoum has so far rejected transferring the mission to the UN.
More than 3,6-million Darfuris depend on aid agencies, not just in camps but also in remote villages in the region the size of France.
A UN map of humanitarian aid access showed vast swathes of land in some of Darfur’s most populous areas out of reach or with limited access.
”Humanitarian access is at its lowest since the Darfur operation began,” Manuel Aranda Da Silva, Sudan’s UN humanitarian coordinator, said in a statement.
”The level of violence being faced by humanitarian workers in Darfur is unprecedented,” he added.
The government and rebel leader Minni Arcua Minnawi, who signed the peace deal, say security in Darfur is good. They deny well-documented reports of Minnawi’s group fighting with other rebel factions who oppose the deal.
Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect. Khartoum armed militias to quell the revolt. Those militia now stand accused of alleged war crimes, which are being investigated by the International Criminal Court. — Reuters