In recent weeks, violence has flared again in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, forcing the largest-scale evacuation of humanitarian workers since aid operations in the war-torn area began in 2004.
More than 400 staff members from the United Nations and NGOs were moved from conflict zones last month due to rising insecurity. They included employees from Irish aid group Goal.
“For three years we have begged the international community to send in an international peacekeeping force to protect innocent civilians and keep the aid channels open,” said Goal founder John O’Shea in a press statement following the withdrawal.
“It is clear that the international community does not rate the lives of the four million people in the region desperately in need of protection by the international community.”
International staffers and Sudanese workers from regions other than Darfur were evacuated: “You have a responsibility, if you recruited someone from Sudan, to return them to where they are from,” Mark Blackett, the country director of Goal Sudan, told IPS.
But what of local aid workers who remained behind? Several are still in Darfur, keeping offices up and running to the best of their ability.
“It sounds awful to say it’s too dangerous for international staff, so we are going to evacuate them and leave the local staff,” said Alun McDonald, spokesperson for NGO Oxfam. “That’s not the case. They have families, wives and children. We can’t evacuate everyone’s extended family.”
Most locals who remained were unwilling to speak on the record about their decision to continue working after other staff had been withdrawn, citing NGO policies that require questions to be directed only to agency spokespersons. Aid officials say these policies are in place to prevent attacks against local staff.
However, some told IPS that continuing with aid work in Darfur was both a responsibility to their home region, and an opportunity for better-paying jobs than they would otherwise have.
Abdallah, a native of the south Darfuri city of Nyala, who asked to be identified by his first name only, lost his job with the Norwegian Refugee Council after the NGO was expelled from south Darfur. This took place in November following a two-month suspension of its activities by the Sudanese government, which charged the agency — in part — with spreading misinformation.
“It’s a big problem that I lost my job,” said Abdallah. “I have six children at home. I am looking for a job right now. I am staying because this is my home and I want to help other Darfuris.”
In Gereida, site of Darfur’s largest camp for displaced people, Oxfam staff still in place are delivering fuel to pumps so water can be brought up from boreholes. But agency spokesperson Caroline Nursey told IPS that the operation cannot keep running for very long without being fully staffed.
Aid groups have voiced increasing frustration at the spiralling violence in Darfur, which has jeopardised the world’s largest humanitarian operation, now serving about four million people.
Oxfam halted operations in Gereida late last month after five of the organisation’s six vehicles were stolen by unknown armed gunmen, who also took communications equipment and money.
“Since we are on the front line we are caught up in this,” Nursey said. “But there comes a point where we have to put safety of staff first.
“I think until recently there had been respect for aid workers here, and there was no targeting of aid workers. But over the last couple of months there has been a serious deterioration and more violence.”
Thirteen aid workers, all of them Sudanese, have been killed since the signing of a peace agreement for Darfur in May.
Aid officials say Sudanese staffers are more likely to be at risk for two reasons. The nature of the jobs that they do, including working as guards and drivers, is more dangerous; and there are simply more Sudanese working in the area.
“The majority of people who have been killed, have been killed in car-jackings,” said Nursey.
Extreme cases of insecurity may see even local workers withdrawn. And ultimately, whether the employees are international or Sudanese, the effect of their evacuation is the same: “When you can’t deliver aid, everyone gets frustrated — local and international,” said Goal Sudan’s Blackett.
The signing of the May accord was initially hailed as a breakthrough toward ending the conflict in Darfur; but this agreement is now viewed as largely superfluous, following the refusal of most rebels to support the deal.
Only one faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), led by commander Minni Minnawi, inked the agreement. Another SLA grouping, along with the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, said the deal did not meet their basic demands for wealth- and power-sharing. In particular, the rebels noted, Sudan’s offer of $30-million in compensation to about three million victims of the prolonged conflict was insufficient.
In September, authorities launched a military offensive against hold-out rebels in northern Darfur, causing further civilian displacement.
Observers charge that government air strikes have devastated certain civilian villages — and that Arab militias, known as janjaweed — which translates loosely in Arabic to “devils on horseback” — continue to kill, rape and pillage with impunity.
Officials stand accused of exploiting inter-ethnic tensions between Arab nomads and farmers from other ethnic groups, who have long fought over land and water resources, by arming the janjaweed to conduct a proxy war on government’s behalf.
The conflict, soon to enter into its fourth year, began when Darfuri rebels attacked government positions in the region. They alleged that remote Darfur remained undeveloped due to neglect from Khartoum.
In August, the United Nations Security Council approved a proposal to send more than 20 000 peacekeepers to the region, to support African Union forces already in place (the AU mission has been plagued by funding problems and a weak mandate that critics charge does not allow it to protect civilians).
Sudan initially refused the UN force, accusing the world body of attempting to re-colonise Sudan. Last month, President Omar el-Bashir appeared to give approval for a three-phased approach for a mixed UN and AU force to begin operations — but reports indicate that he subsequently said this expanded force must only include African troops, working with UN technical support.
The UN warns that the conflict in Darfur, which has spread to neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic, threatens to engulf the entire region and put an estimated six million people at risk. More than 200 000 people are said to have been killed and about two million displaced since the start of violence in Darfur. — IPS