Darfur's aid lifeline in danger
Bandits from all factions are increasingly targeting relief convoys and aid workers in Sudan's conflict.
from the June 11, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
While there are disagreements over the causes of the conflict, and thus its solution – the US government charges the Sudanese government with arming Arab tribes in a deliberate act of genocide; the Sudanese government and many others call it a "local problem" over shrinking water and land resources – the results are indisputably tragic and growing worse.
The UN estimates that 200,000 Sudanese have been killed in the conflict, 2.5 million displaced by the war, and nearly 4 million Sudanese now have become dependant on international food assistance to survive.
The Darfur Peace Agreement has been in force for more than a year, and Darfur should be well on its way to recovery. "Fighting between nonsignatory armed groups and the government has to a certain extent declined," says George Somerwill, spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Sudan. "But general lawlessness, such as hijacking of vehicles and robbery, is very much worse. It is often a matter of 'You foreigners have stuff, and we want it.'"
The 7,000-strong African Union (AU) force has been unable to stop the fighting or the banditry. Last November, Khartoum agreed in principle to allowing an additional 15,000 UN peacekeepers into Sudan. But Sudanese officials have since balked at the size of the UN influx, and argued over whether the hybrid force would be under AU control or UN control. The expectation now is that the UN will handle logistics, and a joint AU/UN headquarters will command the mostly African troops out in the villages.
Officials from the AU, the UN and Sudan will meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on June 11 and 12 to discuss the hybrid force. The UN Security Council officials are expected in the region later this week for talks that will include ongoing discussions about security.
It is hard to get a broad picture of the insecurity in Darfur, but the anecdotal evidence shows that the violence is growing, and aid groups are responding.
• In December, armed men sexually assaulted aid workers, raped one international staffer, and carried out mock executions on others in an attack on the compound of French aid group Action Contre La Faim (ACF) in the town of Gereida. The coordinated attack on all aid groups in Gereida resulted in the evacuation of some 170 aid workers, and ACF has ceased its operations there. Gereida houses 170,000, the largest concentration of displaced people in Darfur.
• On April 16, a two-car convoy was car jacked by five armed men near the Zamzam relief camp near Al-Fasher. One international UN staffer and four Sudanese staffers were taken at gunpoint into the desert and left 35 kilometers from the closest village. A passing commercial truck stopped to give them a ride back to town.
•On May 25, an Egyptian lieutenant colonel for the UN peacekeeping force in Al-Fasher was shot in his home during a robbery. The Egyptian was part of a UN team that was supporting the AU peacekeeping force in Darfur. Nineteen AU peacekeepers have been killed (mostly by rebels) since they deployed in June 2004.
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