Insecurity, tension and attacks on aid convoys have this year added another 140 000 people to an estimated two million people displaced by civil war in Sudan’s western Darfur region, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Many of the camps set up for the homeless are full, and more than half a million people are completely out of reach of aid agencies, the UN mission in Khartoum added in a report.
”The situation in Darfur during May continues to be characterised by forced movement of civilians due to increased insecurity … and rising tensions in camps, and ever-increasing targeted violence against humanitarian operations,” it said.
During May at least 10 000 people were newly on the move, it said, and ”this week 300 families in very poor conditions arrived in Um Dukhum, having fled militia attacks in Um Dafog”.
The UN has said the war, which began in February 2003 and pits rebels against the Khartoum government and its allied Arab Janjaweed militia, has resulted in the deaths of about 200 000 people.
Khartoum disputes the death toll.
The United States has accused Khartoum of waging a campaign of ”genocide” in the country’s western region, while the Janjaweed, in particular, has been accused of murder, mass rape and razing villages to the ground.
”A very visible consequence of the continued pace of displacement is the swelling population of IDP [internally displaced people] camps, many of which can no longer absorb any new arrivals,” the UN report said.
”Nearly all the camps in and around two of the three Darfur state capitals [El Fasher in North Darfur and Nyala in South Darfur] are now at full capacity. Only Zam Zam, in El Fasher, can still accommodate about 3 000 more IDPs.”
Another 17 aid vehicles were attacked and looted in May, raising to 67 the number of such vehicles attacked or stolen this year.
”The increasing use of physical and mental violence during the hijackings is of serious concern,” the report said.
Despite growing insecurity, aid agencies have managed to reduce to 566 000 the number of people across Darfur ”currently cut off from all humanitarian assistance”.
This figure was 900 000 in February, and the decrease was put down to increased efforts by humanitarian agencies. — AFP
